Bizarre Earth Customs
by Nintendocat
Summary: Bulma quickly realizes that simple traditions and common daily activities are anything but when the Sayian Prince is involved.
1. Summer Fun

Author's note: Hello, I originally made two one shots last year but since joining the Bulma/Vegeta writing community on Livejournal I decided to continue and make it a full story. Basically the idea is Vegeta getting used to Earth's strange (to him) customs and Bulma getting used to him. I try to keep the characters as close to canon as possible but I hold by the belief that it's impossible to write a 100% in character Vegeta in a romance so I'm going for a side of Vegeta that only Bulma gets to see.

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and all of its character belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own these characters nor do I claim to.

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Chapter 1: Summer Fun

"Ah, the evening air is so wonderful," Bulma said aloud as she opened the window to her room. It was the beginning of June and the weather was perfect to start all of her summer activities. "No more work for me tonight, it's time to have some fun." She turned back to the room to find the perfect clothes to start off her summer right.

She tossed aside clothes left and right until she found the new swimsuit she had just bought last week. The bright red bikini contrasted perfectly with her china doll complexion and brilliant blue locks. She giggled at her personal description of herself.

"So what if I'm not humble? I'm gorgeous, intelligent, and rich so I've earned the right to be proud. If anyone has a problem with it they can just tell me."

Changing into the suit, she checked herself in the mirror to make sure that it was still as wonderful as when she first saw it. She smiled as she confirmed that it looked great but her smile quickly fell as she remembered why she had gotten it in the first place.

Looking back out the window she saw that the sun was just starting to go down over the tall buildings in the distance. Focusing on one building in particular she thought of her on again off again boyfriend, Yamcha. This morning he had declared that he needed some room so that he could train properly and decided to move out of the compound to his own apartment across town. She had interpreted it as him wanting to break up with her again so he didn't have to feel guilty about staring at other women while he worked out at the public gym or when his baseball fans tried to flirt with him. He had tried to deny it but in the end they had both decided that it was best to call it quits, at least for a little while.

Bulma huffed at the thought. "Sooner or later Yamcha will get bored of his little floozies and come crawling back like he always does," her eyes dropped to the floor as she added, "And I'll probably take him back since I don't have the time to find someone else who doesn't simply want me for my money, my looks, or my business."

Despite that thought she felt that something was different this time, like the sun setting behind his apartment building across town was symbolic of their relationship ending for good this time. The thought scared her a little but also left her feeling a little exciting at what awaited her in the future.

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she forced herself to smile. "No, tonight it's all about me having fun, not about stupid ex-boyfriends that choose to miss out on fun. I'm going to swim until it gets dark and then I'm going to break out some simple fireworks to play with before the big show starts at nine."

She grinned at the thought of that. Every year at the beginning and the end of summer, the city turned off all its lights and her company had a huge firework show the set off in the hills on the edge of town. This year promised to be bigger than ever as her father had used his connections to set up a competition between the biggest firework makers in the world. Bulma, being a very prideful woman herself, knew what a motivator pride could be to be known as the best and if these people were a fraction as pride-driven as she was then they would only bring their best.

"Speaking of pride," Bulma rolled her eyes, "I better warn his majesty about tonight's events before he decides that he's under attack." Deciding not to walk across the compound in nothing but her tiny bikini, she pulled on a short baby doll tee that showed off her mid-drift and some cut-off shorts and made her way outside to the Gravity Room where she could hear the Sayian Prince still training vigorously. "I can't imagine how hot it is in there," she said before knocking on the thick metal door hard enough to hurt her hand.

She was still shaking her sore hand when the door opened and a very sweaty and very ticked off Vegeta stepped out. "What do you want, Woman? "

Frowning at his given name for her, she looked him up and down, disgust clearly written on her face. "I don't know how you're able to work out in there. It's already about 90 degrees out here so it must be upwards of 100 in there."

She was slightly shocked when instead of yelling at her Vegeta just folded his arms over his sweaty chest and gave her a look over, her look of disgust mirrored in his expression. "Do all women on this planet walk around it such an indecent state or are you just incapable of properly concealing yourself?"

Bulma's jaw dropped. Never in her life had anyone ever said anything bad about her looks, especially any man. "Indecent? I'm perfectly covered."

Vegeta shifted his stance, his expression showing more boredom than disgust now. "So it's just this planet's obscene fashion sense then." Though it was a question he had stated it like a fact.

"Look mister, you may be from another planet so you wouldn't know anything about fashion but I'll have you know that men and women alike on Earth rave and gossip about how wonderful my fashion sense always is. There's nothing wrong with a woman using clothes to her advantage to show off her beautiful body and features."

Vegeta stretched his arm out and at first she thought he was going to touch her but he only gestured to her cleavage and her midriff. "Where I come from, women who show off these _features_ are wanting to make some extra currency, and not through methods that could be called good-natured. No male would want the woman he owns or desires to walk around for every other male to see."

Bulma blushed and her frown deepened. "While there are some people like there here Vegeta, people don't instantly believe that every woman that shows a little skin is wanting a one-night stand for a little pocket change." She tossed her head to the side once again looking off at the sunset figuring if she would have any time left to swim before dark with the pace this conversation was going. She was so caught up in the thoughts that she didn't even notice Vegeta's eyes quickly drop down as the motion caused her chest to bounce slightly since he just as quickly looked back up as she turned back to him. "And besides, Men on this planet don't own women and are more than happy to see what they desire show off a little bit."

"That's because the males on this planet are completely pathetic. Why would they be okay with their female showing off to the world what should be reserved for their eyes only?"

"Look Vegeta, if you ever get a woman that'll what to put up with your all-mighty male attitude then you can comment about how she should only show off for you but until then, this is the norm so I suggest you get used to it. In any case, we're completely off topic from what I came to talk to you about. Tonight there's going to be a large fireworks show so I don't want you to do anything rash. Also in about 30 minutes all the lights will be turned off so that the sky is dark enough to enjoy the view better so you won't be able to train during it."

She expected him to argue with her about his precious machine being denied to him but instead he just gave her a confused look. "What are 'fire works'?"

Bulma shared a confused look when suddenly she realized that just because fireworks were well known throughout the world didn't mean that they were used at all in the universe. After all, when you could shoot lasers and ki blasts, what use would Black powder be? "Ah, well, fireworks are a type of pyrotechnic used for entertainment at night shows. They're really pretty and fascinating and the fill the sky with all different colors and shapes."

Vegeta cocked his head to the side, looking even more confused, "Pyrotechnic?"

'_Kami, it shouldn't be possible for Vegeta to look this cute.' _She shook that thought from her head as quickly as it came in. _'If I had known I'd be questioned like this before I would have figured out more about the making of them beforehand.' _"Um, it's a low level explosive made with black powder."

When Vegeta's look changed from confusion to shock Bulma knew Vegeta was already coming up with some weird explanation to make sense of what she had told him. "I never expected such a peaceful planet like this to set off bombs as a form of entertainment. What bizarre customs this planet has."

"What…bombs? They're not bombs, Vegeta, they're just… well okay they are pretty much bombs but not the kind you're thinking of. Nothing is going to blow up except the firework itself, okay? They shoot up in the sky and explode filling the sky with lights and colors and that's it. You don't need to try to put some kind of violent twist into it. It's just a fun tradition that has been done for years."

Bulma was so caught up in her rant that it wasn't until after she was done that she realized that Vegeta was watching her with an amused expression. She blushed again and turned away walking towards the pool. "Like I said before, when the shows starts, don't cause any trouble. Now if you don't mind, I'll be in the pool. I want to swim a little bit before the sun sets and the show starts. The power will be turned off soon so you might as well take a break. You're free to join me if you want, it'll be a much better way to work out without overheating in there anyway." She continued on her way not bothering to see if he was coming since he'd probably just go back into the gravity room and train until the power forced him out.

'_That was so embarrassing. Why did I let him get me worked up like that? If it weren't for the fact that Vegeta was from another planet I would have believed that he was just trying see me make a fool out of myself. Bizarre customs indeed. I bet his customs are way more bizarre than mine, not that I'd want to get inside his head and see how things work for him.'_

Finally reaching the pool, she pulled off her top and shrugged out of her shorts quickly. Normally she pulled off her outer clothes carefully to make sure that nothing got exposed but at the moment she was too angry with herself and her houseguest to care. Adjusting her bikini, she jumped into the pool and completely submerged herself. The cool saltwater instantly cooled her temper and she closed her eyes to better enjoy the feeling of it gliding over her skin. Aimlessly swimming for a bit she finally came to the surface for a breath of air and opened her eyes… only to see Vegeta looking directly at her with that shocked look from before.

"Ah! Vegeta what are you doing," she screamed as Vegeta's expression went from shocked to bored as he looked away, "trying to give me a heart attack?"

"I was under the impression that I could come and swim until the explosions start," Bulma blushed as she remembered that she had, in fact, invited him to come, "and once again you show your indecent side with that scrap of fabric you're swimming in. I take it that this is another completely acceptable custom that your people practice."

Not even wanting to fight it anymore she just sighed, "Yes Vegeta, this is called a bathing suit and everyone wears one when they go swimming though there are styles that cover more skin than mine."

"So you're just choosing to be more obscene than others with your choice of garment then?"

"I have a nice body Vegeta and I'm confident enough to show it off so I don't need to hide it. Besides there are swimsuits that are more 'obscene' as you put it. At least my covers everything without showing anything that really is private." She'd be lying if she said that Vegeta's words didn't bother her. She was a confident woman, but the way Vegeta talked about her clothes like she was nothing more than a cheap hooker made her wonder if he truly didn't like the view.

Vegeta just shook his head before a small smirk made its way onto his face. "And what about the way you just rip everything off before publicly adjusting yourself?"

'_Am I ever not going to blush tonight?' _Bulma thought bitterly. "I was angry about the conversation we had is all. Me ripping my clothes off in a hurry was entirely your fault so don't…" the rest of her statement was cut off by Vegeta's dark chuckle and she froze at the sight of the grin that spread on his face. 'I've seen that cocky look a thousand times before. Why is it affecting me like this now of all times?' She felt trapped by that look but strangely not in a terrifying way.

"I'm flattered, Woman, that I was the cause of you needing to rip all your clothes off and cool yourself."

Vegeta's words made her realize exactly how what she had said could be taken. Once again she dove underwater needing the cooling effects even more than ever. _'Forget tonight. I'm going to be blushing for the rest of my life.' _

Hearing another splash she knew that Vegeta had also dived in. _'I'm not going to let him bother me anymore. This is supposed to be a nice night for me and he's not going to ruin it.' _She braced herself as he swam by but he just passed her. She quickly realized that he was doing laps and that meant that she could enjoy herself without anymore teasing.

After about twenty minutes, Bulma looked over at the horizon and saw as the sun finally set leaving only a faint amount of sunlight touching the city. Making sure Vegeta wasn't watching her this time, she pulled herself out of the pool and toweled off slightly before walking towards the house. Going inside, she looked through some of the smaller fireworks to see which kinds she wanted to do tonight. Deciding that sparklers would be enough in the short period of time before the big show started she quickly jogged back outside.

"What are you doing now, Woman?" She jumped and looked over at Vegeta, his arms folded on the edge of the pool as he watched her intently.

"I'm going to do a few fireworks by myself before it gets completely dark." Pulling out one of the long sticks she moved it up to the lighter and watched as it started to emit blue sparks. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Vegeta was still watching her but she decided not to acknowledge him this time. _'If he wants to think I'm crazy for playing with a sparkler then so be it. He wouldn't know fun if it bit him in the butt.'_

She started moving the sparkler through the air in front of her, the sparks leaving a trail of light in their wake, a pleased smile creeping to her face as she embraced the nostalgic feeling it gave her. Starting off with simple patterns like circles and stars she danced across the lawn making the light and smoke follow her every move. Noticing that the sparkler was nearing its end, she finished with a large heart.

Looking beyond the heart, her eyes met with Vegeta's and her smile instantly fell. No longer merely analyzing her, he was now glaring as if something was about to attack him. Opening her mouth to question what was wrong, she suddenly noticed that Vegeta was no longer in the pool but less than two feet away as he knocked the still sparking stick from her hand. "What the hell is wrong with you, Vegeta?" she yelled, clutching her hand to her chest trying to ease the pain.

"Me? You're the one that has something wrong with you! Or did you want to lose a hand?"

"The only thing that may cause me to lose my hand is you hitting it, you moron!"

"You're the one holding an explosive that is about to go off!"

Bulma's fury finally exploded. "Sparklers don't explode! They just emit sparks and lights and smoke!"

If she hadn't been so angry she would have laughed at Vegeta's flabbergasted expression. "What's the point of making an explosive that only does stuff like that? There's nothing reasonable that it could be applied to."

"It doesn't have to be reasonable," she yelled out, her arms over-expressing her words, "it's just a fun tradition that we do here. We use them to make shapes and patterns and watch as the stay in the air well after the original source was there because…," she paused as she realized what she was trying to explain and who she was trying to explain it to. Closing her eyes, she decided to just get on with it despite knowing that it wouldn't help anything. "Look, it doesn't matter why we do it, okay? We do it because it's a fun thing to do. That's it!"

Finally finishing her rant with her arms dropping sharply to her sides she let herself calm enough to open her eyes and take in the intense blush on Vegeta's face. Looking down, she realized that she hadn't taken the time to change into her outer clothes when she had gotten out of the pool earlier. Meaning that this whole time, from jogging out of the house with the sparklers, to dancing around making shapes in the air, to intensely ranting at Vegeta, she had been in nothing more than her tiny red bikini.

'_Oh kami, no wonder he was starting at me earlier. Wait a second…' _in an instant all of her anger was gone, replaced with a self-satisfied smirk of her own. "For someone that complains a lot about my clothes being indecent, you went quite awhile without feeling the need to complain."

Vegeta's head instantly turned away. "You were the one dancing and jumping around showing off trying to make every male on the planet unwillingly ogle your body," he said as he turned back to her.

"I was just having fun Vegeta. I wasn't trying to make anyone do anything that they didn't want. And besides," she lowered her lashes giving Vegeta her best sultry smile, making the prince go completely still, "there was only one male around to ogle my body, and I didn't hear any complaints from him."

Vegeta's blushed deepened further than she had ever seen it. _'Is it wrong of me to enjoy seeing him so off guard like this? Nah, if anything it's revenge for all the times he purposely got me flustered.' _

Just as he seemed to be forming some kind of excuse the loud sound of the compound's light generator being shut off interrupted their moment. Looking back towards the horizon, Bulma realized that the sun had finally set and the city lights were quickly going off leaving only the moonlight from covering the city in total darkness. She smiled as the apartment building that Yamcha was no longer visible. Once again she thought about how this particular sunset was symbolic to her in some way.

Hearing the first shrill whistle of the night scream out into the air Bulma turned away from the horizon to look towards the hills. With a loud bang, the firework exploded into the shape of a flower making crackling noises as it faded away. Two more followed in quick succession afterwards as the show begin to start, fireworks being set off from multiple places at the same time filling the sky with light and sound. It really was an amazing sight.

Looking away from the show, she spared her houseguest a glance to see what he was making of everything, the smile on her face spreading as she saw that he was once again observing the spectacle. As if sensing her eyes on him, he looked down to meet her gaze. "How is it?"

"I stand by my statement that the customs of this planet are truly bizarre, though the results are not always bad I suppose."

"That's one way to put it, I suppose."

"It's just an interesting observation, Woman, nothing more."

"From you, my dear prince, I'll take that as a compliment." She grinned at him before he returned to watching the dancing lights with a muttered 'whatever'.

'_Just an interesting observation, huh? I'll have to admit, that I'm finding it just as interesting to observe you,'_ she thought as she finally turned her own gaze back to sky.

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A/N: Thank you for reading, I hoped you like it. I'd love to have some reviews and constructive criticism is welcome.

If you're interested in more Bulma/Vegeta fanfiction and art or would even like to join yourself, feel free to join or browse the Blue and Black community on livejournal found here: http:/community[dot]livejournal[dot]com/bulmavegeta/


	2. JackoLantern

A/N: I actually wrote and posted this awhile back but since joining the Bulma/Vegeta community on livejournal and deciding to make a whole story I had fix the old ones to better fit the new story's plot.

This takes place several months after Summer Fun.

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"Pumpkin carving is a tradition because…," Bulma shook her head before scooping out another spoonful of pumpkin. Taking another breath, she tried a different approach, "You see, many countries throughout the world carve pumpkins into lanterns to ward… spirits… away."

Bulma sighed out loud and hung her head. Though she personally loved the tradition of carving out pumpkins and making Jack-o'-Lanterns, she was getting a headache coming up with a logical reason why. Not for her, mind you. She didn't need an explanation for why she or anyone did this act. To most it was just a fun Halloween tradition.

No Bulma was mentally preparing herself to explain the tradition to her easily perturbed house guest. Vegeta: The Prince of All Sayians and lord of the 'why'. The man had been living at her house for nearly seven months and he still acted as if he'd never seen a house before. Explaining why they were covering their house in cobwebs and why they were stockpiling candy for children dressed in costumes had been one long conversation that merely ended with him stating that it was just like their other bizarre Earth customs.

To him everything was a bizarre Earth custom. From the way her family lived to the way they celebrated holidays. He even commented on her 'odd choice of dress'.

"Only a man who parades around in nothing but spandex shorts and tank tops in the middle of fall could claim that my choice of dress is odd," Bulma huffed out aloud. Looking down, she smoothed down her comfy red turtleneck sweater and tight blue jeans. You'd think that after months of complaining about wearing underwear to swim in and shorts too to cover anything he'd like baggy sweaters and blue jeans but it'd just merely changed his form of observance from random questions to intense concentration. Normally Bulma liked when men paid enough attention to her to comment her outfits but with Vegeta it was more liked she was being analyzed for some purpose. She just couldn't understand what he wanted from her.

"What are you doing now, Woman?" Bulma jumped as the subject of her thoughts seemed to appear out of nowhere. Looking up, she saw Vegeta lounging against the wall wearing his loose black pants, grey tank top, and his devilish smirk. He'd caught her off guard again and was enjoying the fact that he'd made her jump.

Bulma glared and then looked back at her now empty pumpkin. _'You knew this was coming. Just get it over with. It's not like anything you say will make sense to him anyway.' _Looking back at Vegeta she put her best smile on. "I'm making a Jack- o' -Lantern," she said as simply as possible.

Vegeta looked over her work with a bored look on his face before looking back to her. "You're carving a vegetable."

Bulma tried her best not to laugh at Vegeta's blunt comment. "For Halloween, people empty out and carve faces or shapes into pumpkins. Then we put lights into them and set them outside."

"Won't it rot? Wouldn't it make more sense to make it out of something more substantial?"

"Well yes, but it's not supposed to last forever. The fun comes out of carving it and making a new one every year." Getting no further comments from Vegeta, she picked up the bowl of pumpkin and the spoon and placed in on the counter. Looking through the drawers, she finally found a good knife to work with and turned to get back to work.

She stopped as she noticed that Vegeta had moved away from the wall and over to the table. He was looking into the pumpkin with an almost curious look on his face._ 'Wow, could he actually be interested in this?' _She moved back to the table and put the knife down so that she could safely push up her sleeves. Noticing her movement, Vegeta's eyes instantly went to her arms and then to her clothes before meeting her eyes with a smirk again. Bulma's huffed knowing exactly what he was going to say with him having to say it. Wanting to avoid another conversation on her clothes, she smiled again catching him off guard. "Do you want to help me?"

Vegeta dropped his gaze to the knife on the table before moving them back to her. "Help you carve a vegetable?"

"Or you could just watch if you want." She didn't like the fact that his eyes were once again casually moving across her clothes. She frowned and waved a hand in front of his face snapping him out of whatever trance he was in. "I don't get your fascination with my clothes."

Vegeta's eyes widened a little before quickly narrowing. "I could care less about the way you dress woman."

"Vegeta, up until a month ago you've always made comments about the indecency of my summer clothes whether it was about my swimwear or about the length of my shorts."

Vegeta quickly looked away before unconsciously returning him stare back to her clothes again, "I don't recall making any comment about them now, woman."

"No, now that I'm wearing longer pants and sweaters, you've gone from making comments to staring as if you're trying to figure out something."_ 'Or see through them,'_ she added mentally knowing he would flip out if she even suggested the idea. "You're doing it right now, so don't deny it." To her surprise Vegeta looked away from her quickly with what could be a trace of a blush gracing his cheeks.

"I… I just don't understand why you're wearing such a puffy shirt if you're just going to push the sleeves up." He moved his gaze back to her no longer bearing anything resembling a blush.

"Puffy! My shirt is not puffy you jerk."

"Woman, I know what your body looks like. Your torso and neck are not that wide and with the sleeves pushed up your arms look twice as big. Your natural shape is completely hidden."

Bulma was stunned at Vegeta's clear explanation. It was obviously made up on the fly, trying to defend himself, but he had a valid point. The sweater she was currently wearing did swallow her up quite a bit, but it was comfy and warm. Good for lounging around the house, sipping cocoa and sitting by the fire. It's not one she would ever wear outside when meeting people, just around the house.

He had a point but that didn't mean she'd let him get away with his staring scot-free.

She put on her best smile which instantly got Vegeta's attention. "Well, it's good that you pay special attention to how my body looks, even going so far as to notice how much my comfy sweater hides my natural shape," The blush on Vegeta's face was now painfully obvious, his mouth opening as if to say something to redeem himself but not having the words to back up the motion, "but you're right about how it's pointless to wear this if I'm just going to push it up so much. I'll go and change." She finished as sweetly as possible before brushing past him and up the stairs, taking one last glance at his flustered stance before quickly continuing to her room.

Giggling to herself only when she made it to the safety of her bedroom, she started looking for a good top to wear; nothing too old, but then nothing to new as she was probably going to get it dirty. "I don't know why I'm worrying so much. It's not like he'll be down there when I'm done. I think I'm over his tease quota for tonight." She didn't get to do it very often, but when she did get Vegeta to lose his tough man façade and get so flustered that he was at a complete loss for words, it was a feeling she couldn't compare with anything.

Bulma pulled out a deep purple three-quarter sleeve top and put it on. Looking at herself in the mirror, she turned to see if the snug top flattered her form better. It did, but then again, with her form not much didn't work. "Ha, this should satisfy the Sayian Prince," she thought smugly before realizing where her train of thought had gone. _'Why does that matter? It's not like I want him to stare at me.'_ She considered finding something a little less form hugging before shrugging. _'It's not like he'll be down there waiting for me to come back anyway.' _ Turning the light off, she went back downstairs.

"I could have carved this pumpkin myself in the time it took you to change woman." Vegeta commented without looking up as she re-entered the room.

Bulma stopped at the door shocked to see that Vegeta was still there. "Wow, I didn't think you'd still be here."

"Did you not invite me to join you in this activity, Woman?" Vegeta calmly stated finally looking up at her. He looked her up and down. Catching her gaze he quickly lowered his own back to the pumpkin.

Bulma blushed a little at the look he had given her before moving back over to the table._ 'I guess this was a good choice.' _"Okay to start with we need to pick a side to work on," looking to Vegeta, she noticed that he quickly looked back to the pumpkin. _'Even after calling him on it, he's still staring at me. But at least he's trying to be subtle about now.'_ Deciding that she couldn't expect too much at once she continued with the lesson. "This side looks good", picking up a craft book she added, "Now we need to decide what design to make."

"Isn't that it?"

Bulma looked over to see that the book did have a picture of a standard jack-o'-lantern on the cover. "Well, we could do that one, I suppose. It's the most common one with the triangle eyes and crooked smile, but I was kinda hoping to do something different this year."

She held the open book up for Vegeta to see, "See there are all different kinds of things we could do." She flipped through a couple of pages before noticing that the designs were getting more difficult with each turn. "Ah, some of these look hard. I'd never be able to do something that detailed."

She snuck another look at Vegeta and was surprised that he was actually looking at the book. Even with an activity as simple as this one, he still managed to look regal._ 'Maybe that's why he doesn't care what he's wearing. He so naturally handsome, he could wear anything and make it look intentional and comfortable.' _Bulma blushed as she realized what she was thinking. Looking up, her blush deepened as Vegeta's cocked eyebrows and smirk concluded that she'd been caught staring.

"Umm… Aren't you cold?" Vegeta's smirk deepened and she knew that he didn't buy it. Nonetheless he carefully lifted his hand and gently placed the back to her cheek. Instantly she felt a flood of warmth come from him._ 'No, he's not cold at all. He's hot. He's really, really hot. I wonder how it'd feel to have him cup my face instead of just touching it._' Her blushed deepened even further. "An-anyway… Let's look back towards the beginning." Bulma quickly pulled herself back from his hand and quickly went about looking in the book. "Here are some easier ones. We should be able to pull off one of these."

"This one's not too difficult?" Vegeta pointed down to picture of glaring pumpkin with a jagged toothed smile.

"No, I think that'd be do-able." Bulma had finally composed herself. Her sudden train of thought, being caught staring, and Vegeta's comfortable warmth: It was all a little overwhelming. She was fine now. After all, it was nothing to worry about. He stared at her all the time for whatever reason he had, so what's fair is fair. As for his touch, that was just him showing her that his body temperature was high enough to not be cold. Nope, nothing to worry about at all.

Picking up a marker she started tracing out the areas that they'd have to carve. Luckily it was mostly large cuts that didn't require too much detail. She finished tracing out the pattern as close to the picture as possible then looked back to Vegeta. "And now we start cutting. Can I have the knife back?" She shivered slightly at the warmth that she felt where her hand touched his during the exchange.

She smiled sweetly again before turning back to the pumpkin. _'Wow, I never imagined getting this far. Vegeta's hasn't even complained that much yet'._ She quickly jabbed the knife into the line marking the first eye. With a little more effort than she thought she'd need, she carefully pushed the knife in and out carving the eye as close as should could to the original. "Shoot, I thought I'd made it thin enough on the inside that it wouldn't be this hard," she huffed out, mostly to herself. Her efforts cause her bangs to fall into her eyes and she blew upwards and put more force into her carving.

Finally after a hard three minutes, she pushed hard enough that the eye popped right out. She smiled, proud of herself, until she realized Vegeta shaking with carefully contained mirth out of the corner of her eye. "And just what do you find so entertaining?"

Vegeta quickly covered his face, "I just never imagined you'd be so determinedly violent." He removed his hand, his trademark smirk clearly in place and his eyes sparkling with a sense of humor she would never have imagined could be seen there. "Is this how it always goes?"

Bulma, momentarily taken aback by the formerly unseen look on Vegeta's face, quickly snapped back to the matter at hand with a blush on her face. "No, that's not how it normally goes. The skin of this pumpkin is just a bit thicker than I thought it was that's all. But even then, it's not like it's soft in the first place so it does take a lot of effort to carve." At Vegeta's raised eyebrow and cocky smirk, she pouted and held out the knife. "Well it's your turn. You can cut out the other eye."

Bulma watched as Vegeta took the knife from her hand and carefully began cutting out the other eye. Her eyes widened as she watched Vegeta skillfully and easily move the knife along the line and make the other eye. She would have normally just claimed that it was his super strength that was making his work look so easy if it weren't for the fact that he was also following the design as close as possible, taking extra care with being precise.

In less than a minute, Vegeta popped out the second eye and stood back to compare his results with hers. Looking up at Bulma, he cocked his head. The words 'You were saying?' didn't need to be said aloud.

Bulma pouted again but couldn't deny that Vegeta had done a much better job than she did. "Wow Vegeta, you're really skilled with a knife."

Vegeta let out a small bark-like chuckle, "You'll find that I am quite skilled at a lot of different things, woman. Dangerous things are just the beginning of a long list."

A blush spread across Bulma's faced at the scale of thoughts that quickly passed through her head at the statement. Quickly turning around so he couldn't see she decided to do something useful. "Why don't you just finish carving that while I find a candle that'll work?" She turned back and was startled to see the confused look and frown on Vegeta's face.

"Aren't you going to carve anymore?" It was such an innocent question; Bulma was shocked at its sincerity.

She shook herself._ 'No, he probably just wants me to embarrass myself again.'_ Smiling to hide her discomfort, she stated, "No, I think it's clear that you're much better at it." She expected him to make a jab at her skills or remark about how she's making him do all the work but was once again surprised he just turned back the pumpkin slowly and went back to work. She could have sworn that he'd almost been pouting a little, but quickly dismissed that thought before setting off to find a candle.

Moving towards the hall closet she found a candle that was short enough to fit without being seen but with a long enough wick to burn through the night. She smiled and went back to the kitchen to see that Vegeta had already finished the mouth. She was a little surprised that he hadn't fixed the mistakes she'd made but shrugged it off thinking he just didn't want to do anything unnecessary. When he turned to look up at her she moved away from the door and back to his side.

"It looks great. Thanks, I could never have made it this well." She smiled up to him, surprised to see him looking directly back at her with the same look he'd had earlier.

It was confusing but before she could ask if something was wrong, he quickly masked the look. "What's next?"

"Ah, well now we light a candle and put it inside." She started to light a match when she saw his confused look. "What?"

"With all the technology you possess, you'd think you would something more advanced than a candle."

"Some people do use lights or glow sticks, which are little tubes that glow in the dark, to replace candles since it's considered safer and easier to maintain," Finally lighting the match, she lit the candle and turned off the lights, "But I like candles better. I like how the flickering is more inviting and warm than modern methods." Placing the candle in the top, she smiled, "See? Isn't it amazing to see how the light enhances everything and makes it more warming?"

She turned to Vegeta only to be caught by his intense stare. The candle light danced across his bronzed skin and gave a warm glow to his eyes. Her eyes scanned over his face as she took in his features more closely than she ever had before. She realized that he must be doing the same thing.

_'He really is quite handsome.'_ The darkness of the room and the warmth of the candlelight made him seem so much closer than before. Her eyes moved down to his lips, they suddenly seemed so intriguing.

Before she could stop herself she moved forward and gently brushed her lips against his. She saw his eyes widen slightly before he returned the gesture. His lips, she found, were as warm as his skin. His eyes remained open as if analyzing even now but they seemed to be burning in the candlelight.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she jumped back startled. Looking up, Vegeta also seemed to have come back to himself. Blushing deeper than she had all night, she moved back to the wall and turned the light back on. "Well, it's done," she tried to change the situation's focus as quickly as possible "Now we just put it outside for everyone else to see. And that's it."

"I see. Another bizarre Earth custom done for random reasons." Bulma frowned and looked away. _'What were you expecting? Even if he participated in the activity, there was no guaranteeing that he'd enjoy it.'_ She was shaken out of her thoughts as Vegeta hand reached out and cupped her cheek, the warmth instantly making her blush as he brought her eyes to meet his. "But definitely very interesting." He finished with a warm smirk before he left the kitchen and went up the stairs to his room.

Bulma fell against the wall and reached up to touch the cheek that Vegeta had touched. "Interesting, huh?" She laughed nervously, "Does that mean that he expects a repeat of that every time we carve a Jack-O-Lantern." She smiled at the thought. "You know, I don't think I'd mind that too much."

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A/N: Hope you all liked it, though I'm sure that there were a few who had read it before in which case I'll say Sorry, please bear with it for another week. Next week I'll repost 'Christmas Tree' and then it'll new after that. Thanks for your patience. Reviews are very much appreciated.


	3. Christmas Tree

The other fic in this series that I wrote before and recently adjusted. From here on out they'll be completely new like Summer Fun.

A note about religion and world views: While I am a religious person, this fic will only focus on the more generic traditions of Christmas. I'm also aware that Christmas isn't a confirmed holiday throughout the world but even Japan that doesn't mark it on their calendars still do things like putting up Christmas trees and they love Santa (almost as much as they love Colonel Sanders :p)

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own them, nor do I claim to.

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"Whew, finally got the tree up," Bulma Briefs took a step back to appreciate her handy work with a grin on her face. "That only took…," looking down at her watch, she winced, "an hour," she stated aloud still smiling. "So what if it took so long to put the thing up. I got it up by myself and that's something to be proud of."

It was the first year Bulma ever had to put the tree up on her own. It was one of the few things, along with gardening and feeding the pets, that her Father had insisted not be automated. 'Putting up and decorating a Christmas tree was something to be enjoyed, a bonding experience for all involved', her Father had said. When she was a child she had helped him and her Mother decorate it. Laughing and playing together had in fact been a bonding experience.

As they all got older and Yamcha came into her life, he helped her put the tree up and they'd decorate it as her parents watched, making comments about it and enjoying the ever changing holiday experience. Every year, she had looked forward to how much fun it would be to just get everyone together and enjoy the moment.

This year, however, the holiday had changed more then she could have expected. She and Yamcha had finalized their break up around the end of summer and soon after he had taken off the train in the wilderness in preparation of the incoming androids.

Her parents had gone off as well, though for very different reasons. Two days ago, her Father had been called to a conference by the World Government and her Mother had gone along as if the trip was a simple vacation leaving Bulma all alone at the house.

"Well," Bulma said aloud, her eyes turning towards the staircase, "not completely alone."

Bulma thought of her house guest, who had surprised her by shutting down the GR for the evening and retiring to his room about an hour ago. It was only 8 o'clock and since Vegeta normally trained at least until midnight and sometimes even slept in the chamber, it was easy to see why she was shocked. When she had heard the machine shut down, she had expected him to come stomping to her about something being broken or that he wanted more food, but he had just walked past her barely sparing her a glance.

Bulma sighed. Ever since they had carved a Jack-o-lantern together back in late October, Vegeta had kept his distance. It worried Bulma a bit because she didn't want an awkward relationship with her already distant house guest. The man went out of his way to be rude all the time, but he had suddenly gotten patient and calm in regards to helping her with her 'Bizarre Earth Custom'. Then just as they had gotten close, really _really_ close, he'd disappeared and seemed to be avoiding her. She could never figure the guy out no matter how hard she tried. Either he cared about the customs of the planet or he didn't and just wanted to something from her, but what that something was evaded her. _'Probably just enjoys seeing me flustered,' _she thought with a pout.

Shaking her head, Bulma pushed the thoughts aside. "Luckily Mom took care of the majority of the house before she left. I'd hate it if I had to do everything," She stated as her eyes travelled along the walls taking in the garland and tinsel tastefully coloring the room. She chuckled as she recalled Vegeta's reaction to everything going up. No matter how much she tried to explain the metallic-like strands around the room or the garland wreaths adorning the outer doors, he just huffed and went on his way.

She giggled as her eyes came across the living room door frame where her Mother had hung some mistletoe. That explanation had put Vegeta off the most. She closed her eyes and remembered his reaction.

"_You're telling me that your species has to be intimate solely because of a plant tacked onto a doorway? How bizarre." Vegeta had stood away from the door frame glaring at the branch as if it were toxic._

"_No, the plant isn't doing anything. It's not that they physically can't resist, it's just a tradition," Bulma explained, doing her best not to chuckle at his suspiciousness. "A peck on the cheek or lips between friends and strangers, though some do take advantage of the tradition to invoke something a… little more passionate."_

_Bulma's Mother, who had been cooking in the other room, came in. "Every woman within a mile's radius will be hoping to catch you for something a little more passionate, Vegeta," she giggled airily placing her hand on Vegeta's arm and ignoring his slight jump._

"_Mom! Don't say it like that. I didn't mean that at all." _

"_Of course not dear," Mrs. Briefs giggled again before winking at Vegeta and returning to the kitchen._

"_I'm sorry, Vegeta," Bulma turned back to him with a heavy blush, "You just have to ignore Mom when she's like that. She doesn't mean any harm." She tried to explain how her Mother was but Vegeta's focus was elsewhere, lost in concentration. "Vegeta?" _

_Vegeta grunted then turned towards the stairway opposite the door frame in question before disappearing for the night._

From that moment on, Vegeta had been careful about who was around before going through the living room. Obviously he didn't want any of Mom's passion, not that Bulma blamed him. Secretly, she found herself wondering what it would be like to get caught under the mistletoe with the elusive prince for more than a chaste kiss. She realized what she had just thought and blushed, _'Where did that come from?'_

"Woman, why is there a tree in the living room?" Bulma jumped and spun around, startled to see Vegeta in his black knit sleep pants standing behind her with a confused look on his face. Noting her blush, he added, "Are you drunk?"

Bulma's blush deepened and she rubbed her cheeks as if she could get rid of her embarrassment so easily. "No, I am not drunk," she huffed out. She was actually glad that Vegeta had attributed her blush to something other than her naughty thoughts. "This is another of our 'bizarre Earth customs' as you like to put it."

"At least you're learning to admit to your planet's follies, Woman," Vegeta gave her his trademark smirk at her frustrated look. "So, care to explain this one to me?"

Sighing, Bulma walked over to one of the boxes marked 'tree decorations' and opened it up. "Not that you care, but it's a Christmas tree. It's tradition that the family gets together to decorate the tree and then place gifts under it for Christmas day."

"But your family is not here," Vegeta stated bluntly before taking notice of Bulma's sad expression.

"Yeah, I know," Bulma said sadly before forcing a smile on her face, "They're busy this year and I wanted to surprise them when they came back." Looking at Vegeta's expression, she knew that he'd caught how forced her smile was.

Vegeta looked away, uncomfortable with the woman's act, and moved over to the box of decorations.

Bulma's face was thoroughly surprised at his action. _'No way. He's just seeing what's inside. He's not planning on helping out. Don't get so worked up.'_ Bulma grabbed the step ladder and placed it by the tree.

Not even having to look up, Bulma knew Vegeta was eyeing her. Checking her clothes, a thin-knit red sweater and dark blue jeans, Bulma didn't see anything that he could have a problem with this time around so that could only mean that he was enjoying the view. _'He's totally checking me out. I wonder what lame excuse he'll make to cover it this time.' _Ever since being called on her frumpy clothes back in October, Bulma went out of her way to make sure she was always wearing form flattering, decent covering clothes. Vegeta, no longer having the reasoning of her bad choices as an excuse for staring anymore, had to resort to petty insults about whatever she was doing instead.

'_Might as well get it over with,'_ Bulma thought looking up in time to see Vegeta avert his eyes back to the decoration box. "What is it Vegeta?"

"I was just wondering how I'm going to survive the rest of the week without your family if you were to break your leg falling from that ladder." Frowning, Bulma touched the ladder. It wasn't that bad as long as she didn't stand on the top step. "Even if that thing was attached to the floor, your clumsy self would find a way to fall off," he finished with a cruel smirk.

Bulma, choosing not to fall for his insult, decided to turn his game against him. "But how else am I supposed to decorate this big tree by myself," she pouted looking coyly under lowered lashes at Vegeta off-guard look.

Vegeta shook his head before looking back at the ladder and clearing his throat. "Seeing as how you injuring yourself will be harmful to my progress, I will join you in this… tree decorating ritual." Bulma's mouth dropped open. No matter what she expected of this man, he always did something that would never cross her mind. At her reaction, Vegeta added, "But I expect a larger breakfast in the morning and those new training droids to be finished by the afternoon."

Bulma smiled broadly at his nonchalant attitude to helping her out. Regardless of his demands, it was clear that Vegeta was either really concerned about her welfare or really wanting to spend time with her. "Thank you so much Vegeta," she said as she refrained from hugging the prince who was already far past his limits.

Moving over to the box, she pulled out a strand of lights and shook them out. _'Thank Kami they're not tangled. I'd never hear the end of it.'_ Walking over to the tree she started wrapping the lights around the tree. "See, you slant them up the tree like this." She started for the ladder to put the lights further up the tree only to have Vegeta snatch the lights from her.

He turned the lights from side to side looking at them. "What are these tiny things, light bulbs? You're going to hang light bulbs on a tree?"

"Yes, they're the same as the ones on the outside of the house only smaller. They make the tree glow when the lights are out. Now can I have them back?"

Vegeta looked back at her before floating up enough to hang the rest of the light on the higher part of the tree. He moved back and looked over his work before adjusting one of the strands to better match the others.

Once again, Bulma was amazed at Vegeta's attention to his work. Right down to every detail, the man knew how to get things done properly, anything less wouldn't do for the proud prince. She smiled up at him as he turned to gauge her reaction. "Great, now it time to hang the ornaments," she moved over to another box and opened it, taking in all of the precious memories it held. From glass balls and candy canes, to teddy bears and silver bells, every piece brought a little more Christmas to the season. Feeling warmth beside her, she looked over to see Vegeta also looking into the box, though his expression was more curious. "Careful with these, okay. They're fragile." She picked up a large green ball with a picture of her family from when she was five printed on it. "Aw, I was such a cutie." She quickly shut her mouth and braced herself for Vegeta's insult. After a moment of silence however she looked over to see Vegeta looking over an ornament with a perplexed expression. "What's wrong?"

"Why is there a fat man on this?"

"Huh?" Bulma moved over close enough to see what Vegeta was talking about. "Oh, that's Santa Claus." When Vegeta looked at her with a 'go on' expression, she continued. "Santa and his elves at the North Pole make gifts all year round for all the boys and girls. He watches to see if they've been naughty or nice. On Christmas Eve, people put out cookies and milk for him to eat before they go to sleep. Then Santa comes down the chimney, eats the cookies and milk, and leaves presents under the tree," Bulma finished the charming tale with a smile.

Vegeta, who had listened to the entire explanation with a bored look, paused for a moment running the words back and forth in his head. "So, you celebrate a fat man, who watches your every waking moment, breaks into your house, and eats your food … because he leaves you gifts."

Bulma, still smiling, ran that over in her head. "No, it's not like that. It's… well…," she sighed, "It's just a story." Vegeta shook his head and muttered something she couldn't quite understand before placing the ornament on the tree.

Bulma suddenly realized that these experiences, Vegeta taking time out of his day to learn about her planet's customs, were just as enlightening to her as they were to him. It was good to step back and realize how different the world was from someone else's eyes. Shaking herself of anthropologist mode, she decided to get to work with the remaining ornaments, pausing every now and then to reminisce about a few of them.

Bulma was enjoying the comfortable silence that came with working with Vegeta, who paused every now and then to raise a question about why they were putting food and strange bears on the tree, until she decided to change gears. "That's enough of those, Vegeta." Stepping back to look at their work, she smiled. "Pretty good looking, if I do say so myself. All that's left is the star on top."

Once again, Vegeta tried to grab the star from her before she could get on the ladder but this time she slapped his hand away. "I know you're concerned for your precious schedule to go unhindered but I'll be fine."

"Don't expect me to catch you when your clumsiness takes over woman," Vegeta remarked while crossing his arms over his chest and looking away. It was so close to pouting that Bulma couldn't help but giggle.

Carefully climbing up the ladder, Bulma reached up to place the star only to realize that she didn't have enough reach. _'Asking Vegeta would be the same as saying he was right,_' she gave a sideways glance at Vegeta noting that his pout was replaced by his usual smirk, _'smug jerk. Well, I'll show him.' _Looking back at the tree with a fierce look of determination, she set her mind to the task at hand.

Standing on her tip-toes and stretching to her full height, she held onto the tree with one hand and tried to place the star with it other. Despite her best efforts, she realized that it was still too far and she only succeeded in making herself tired and disheveled looking. Blowing her bangs out of her eyes with a frustrated huff, she decided to carefully move up to the top step. Stopping to catch her balance, she reached out again. With the added height, placing the star was painfully easy.

'_Warning labels or not, I should have done this from the beginning and saved myself some stress,'_ she placed her hands on her hips and grinned broadly at her achievement before remembering that Vegeta had been there to witness everything, from her desperate struggle to her exaggerated joy over such a simple task. Blushing for about the fourth time that night, she turned to confirm that Vegeta was indeed amused by her antics. It was very rare to see the man laugh but even rarer that he was so tickled, as odd as a word that is to use for him, that was shaking with mirth and covering his mouth to restrain himself from laughing out loud but when it came to her making a fool out of herself, he just couldn't help himself. His eyes were sparkling from the sheer amount of amusement he'd gotten and she blush deeper.

"I really need to take a day off and watch you work in your lab, I'm sure it'd be worth it," he laughed, his smirk never leaving his face.

"Laugh it up, Prince of Jerks, but I still got the star up there all by myself," she finished, determined not to let his amusement get in the way of her accomplishment. Making her way down the ladder, she over-estimated the third to last step and let out a yelp as she fell only to be caught halfway down. Looking up at her suddenly serious savior, she raised her eyebrow. "I thought you said you wouldn't catch me if I fell."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed and he quickly pushed her away, "I also said that your clumsiness would hinder my progress _when_ you fell so don't get any ideas."

Pretending to dust herself off, she winked at him, "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, my dear prince." At Vegeta's glare she knew that she should let the issue go. It seems that what little good mood Vegeta had this evening had left completely. "I'll just plug the lights in and everything will be perfect." Reaching behind the tree and connecting the lights to the outlet, she stood back and smiled at the sight. Her reverie was broken by her grumpy helper.

"What's the difference? Those tiny light bulbs aren't producing enough light to amount to anything."

Sighing, Bulma moved over to the light switch at the entrance to the room and proceeded to turn out the lights. "You're such a mood killer." She smiled as Vegeta turned his attention to the now glowing tree.

Leaning against the door frame, she smiled as she watched him look the tree up and down, trying to figure out what was going through his head. He was a hard man to figure out, but surely he wouldn't spend so much time doing something that he truly hated. No one could make Vegeta do anything he didn't want to do. Of course that just brought up the question of what exactly he was getting out of participating in these activities with her. "I think we did a pretty good job for a first-timer and my clumsy self."

"Hmph. With your clumsy self here," Vegeta looked away from the tree to where Bulma stood, "I'm surprised that nothing caught on…," whatever insult Vegeta had been about to throw at her was cut short as his sight finally locked onto where she was standing.

Bulma's face clearly showed her confusion at Vegeta's suddenly halted words and she only grew more confused as a sly smirk crept onto his face and he began to slowly advance towards her. At first she didn't understand what on Earth could have caused this reaction but then it suddenly hit her dead on. She looked up to confirm her suspicions that she was, in fact, standing directly under the mistletoe her Mother had put up earlier that week.

Looking back down, she jumped as she realized how close Vegeta had gotten. Licking his lips and inhaling deeply, Bulma felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement; a perfectly reasonable feeling if you remembered that Vegeta was a natural born hunter. Regardless, she bit her lip and held his gaze, refusing to run as he leaned in further.

"A peck on the cheek or lips between friends and strangers, though some do take advantage of the tradition to invoke something a little more passionate," Vegeta gently ran his fingers through her hair before moving his hand down to cup her face, "I believe those were your exact words."

At Bulma's slight nod, he finally leant forward and brushed his lips against hers, much like she did earlier that year. Bulma shivered a little before she closed her eyes and let herself just enjoy the feeling. Moving in sync, they both opened their mouths to better enjoy each other's presence. Feeling Vegeta's other hand skim her hip and pull her closer, she allowed her own hands, previously paralyzed at her sides, to move up Vegeta's chest, around his neck, and up into his hair. Another shiver danced through her as she felt a deep rumble vibrate through his body.

Finally, after a few passionate moments, they both pulled away from each other slightly out of breath. Neither having a reason to stop, they pulled together and continued to enjoy their private moment.

No, Bulma didn't know why Vegeta suddenly decided to show interest in learning about her planet's bizarre customs, but she didn't really have to. It was interesting nonetheless. Everything was so different with the Sayian prince around whether it was their conflicting schedules, his comments about her behavior and dress, or his general moodiness clashing with hers. But as she was continuing to find out, different wasn't always a bad thing.

And even though she had started this evening believing that she was alone, under the mistletoe, cast in the glow of the Christmas tree, this night would prove to her that, despite their differences, two lonely people could find companionship together, if only for a moment.

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Hope you enjoyed it and like I said before next week it'll be a new chapter for everyone here (unless you go to Maddie's Bulma/Vegeta writing comm on livejournal ;P) I'd love to hear what you think so reviews are appreciated very much.


	4. New Year's Resolution

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and all of its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own them nor do I claim to.

A/N: Takes place after Christmas Tree but flashes back to the end of Summer before Jack-o-lantern. It's also the longest chapter by far. I actually had to cut quite a bit to fit into the livejournal's word limit when I submitted it to the Blue and Black writing community.

Edit: I've gotten a few comments about Vegeta being ooc in the chapter but I already told people at the beginning that I feel that it's impossible to have a 100% in character Vegeta in a romance and that I'm going for a dark, secretly charming side that only Bulma sees. Vegeta's a jerk but he knows how to get what he wants if he doesn't want to lose it and if that requires smooth talking or explaining that he's going to let himself go completely then that's what he has to do. I'm sorry if I put anyone off with my version but seriously go read the manga or watch the anime and then go read your favorite fics where Vegeta is "100% in character" and I'm sure that you'll realize that he's not unless it's a pwp where they just rip off each other's clothes and don't explain why. In any case just sit back and enjoy the fact that I don't have him confessing his love or anything that ooc.

Okay rant over, please enjoy the story.

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"Champagne: Check. Hors d'oeuvres: Check. Music: Check," Bulma smiled as she finally reached the end of her list. "That's about everything for the party tonight. It should be a relatively stress-free evening.

At that comment, her smile fell a bit. "Speaking of Stress-free," she looked out the window to see the flashing lights coming out of the GR suggesting that it was in heavy use, "I better tell Vegeta that he needs to move to the backyard if he plans to continue training tonight." Putting down her checklist, she pulled on a thick jacket and made her way outside.

"I've got to remember to sneak in and re-enable that comm. screen next time I get a chance. It's completely ridiculous that I have to go outside in this cold just because he doesn't like to be interrupted. Luckily it hasn't snowed yet." Picking up her pace, she climbed the stairs to the GR and knocked on the door. When she didn't hear the sounds inside cease her frown deepened and she knocked on the door as hard as she could before clutching it to her chest in pain. She sighed in relief when the sound did stop, the red light signaling that the gravity was in use turning off.

A few seconds later the door opened a crack so that she could just see Vegeta's frowning face. "What do you need, Woman? Can't you tell when I'm busy?"

Bulma gave him a confused look at his actions. "Um, are you going to open the door?"

Vegeta visibly shifted and a strange look graced his eyes before he hid it behind one of annoyance, "I don't have time to chit-chat or whatever you call your prattling ways, Woman, I need to get back to training so just tell me what you want."

_'The nerve of this jerk!'_ Trying her best to keep her composure intact and her anger in check she answered. "Sorry for bothering you, your majesty, but I've come to inform you that you need to move the GR to the backyard so you won't be an eyesore for our party guests tonight. If it weren't for that I wouldn't dream of coming out here to see you at all. Now get your warm clothes on and come outside so that we can get this done and over with." With that, she made her way down the ramp and waited for him to come.

She tried to keep her mind off Vegeta's rude behavior and the cold by thinking about where she was going to have him take the GR and what she should wear tonight. However her train of thought was broken by none other than Vegeta himself, "Do you want to wait inside?"

Bulma was slightly shocked at his question but her pride made her keep her eyes looking ahead. "Just hurry. I need to get ready for the party and I'd like more than an hour to do so." A few seconds went and, not hearing the door close, her curiosity got the better of her. She turned and looked up the ramp only to see that Vegeta was now inches from her. Jumping back in shock, she would have fallen if not for Vegeta's iron tight grip on her wrist. "What's your problem, Vegeta?"

Instead of answering her he just turned and walked back up the ramp and into the GR with her in tow. Before she could say anything, he was across the room and going downstairs to change.

'_I swear I just don't get him,'_ she thought with a sigh._ 'I shouldn't be surprised though, he always has to have his way with things. I just don't understand why he's being twice as difficult lately.'_

Leaning against the wall she let her thoughts drift back to the night they had decorated the Christmas tree together and the kiss they shared under the mistletoe. Despite being their first kiss it was easily one of the most passionate kisses she could recall ever having. She closed her eyes as she reminisced in the feeling it had given her. Vegeta had put a lot into it, as if he'd wanted to kiss her for a long time but had waited for the exact moment to strike. With the mounting passion of the kiss she had expected him to try to go farther than just kissing but to her surprise he just pulled away soon after and quickly left, locking himself in the GR. It was all so sudden that she hadn't known if she had dreamt what happened. To make matters worse, he had suddenly decided to turn up his training regime so she hadn't see him since.

It all brought up two big questions that she didn't know exactly how to answer: Why hadn't he just kissed her earlier if he had wanted to and why did he dash off afterwards and avoid her ever since?

'_Oh, I can make up answers, that's easy,'_ she thought as shifted her weight to a more comfortable position. _'He had waited so long because he didn't know any other way to initiate a kiss other than taking advantage of the mistletoe tradition and he ran off because his want for me was so strong that he couldn't control himself,'_ she scoffed as she finished that thought. _'More like he couldn't pass up teasing me since I did something as stupid as not pay attention to where I was standing and he left because he got he didn't want to do anything other than gloat that he had gotten me excited so easily,' she thought with a twisted frown and a nod as she decided that sounded closer than her first scenario._

Sighing, she opened her eyes and nearly fell over as she saw Vegeta, now dressed in black jeans and a dark blue sweater, standing a few feet in front of her, his face showing wonderment, _'Probably at the strange expressions I was making while thinking. Stupid Vegeta, not making sound when he walks, _'she blushed before turning towards the door._ "_Well let's get this moved so you can get back to training."

Once they were both outside, she capsulated the GR and picked it up before moving towards the backyard and the place she decided to put it.

"So what pointless custom are you having that requires a party?" Vegeta asked without looking at her.

"I thought you didn't want any 'chit-chat', Vegeta," She responded dryly as she rubbed her arms, the cold feeling more brutal than before after being inside the warm training chamber. _'It has to be 30 degrees out here. I can't believe that he's completely fine just wearing one layer of clothes,_' she thought with a shiver. Suddenly she felt a wave of heat spread over her from Vegeta's general direction.' Looking over at him she saw that he was now looking at her instead of straight ahead. _'Was that his ki?_

"I have the right to know why so many strangers are coming into my territory, Woman. Or are you okay with me attacking anyone I see as a threat."

Frowning deeper, she looked away with a sigh, knowing that this tradition would be just as hard to logically explain as the others, "We're celebrating the new year. Basically at midnight it will no longer be this year and it'll be the next. We're going to celebrate by staying up late and counting down the last few seconds before it becomes tomorrow," Looking back, she watched as he tried to make sense of having a party for the sole purpose of the days changing, "Then we make resolutions about what we want to accomplish in the new year. Some people aim to lose weight, stop smoking, or to find a new love interest," he thought about that before trying to say something but she decided to change the subject and avoid any questions or snide comments about her needing to lose weight or stop smoking, "And before you ask, no Goku and the others won't be here. Everyone is busy training for the androids like you are. This party is just for stockholders and acquaintances of Capsule Corp. In other words, people that aren't accustomed to flying men or martial arts and I highly doubt that you'll truly see any of them as a threat."

"There are more ways to be a threat than just in a physical sense."

Bulma thought that over as they came to a stop at the designated place, far from the prying eyes of her guests, "I guess that's true but I doubt that anyone will be planning a hostile takeover of the company tonight."

"That's not what I was referring to," as she gave him a confused look he quickly looked away, "never mind, just put the chamber down so I can get back to training."

Clicking the top and throwing the capsule as far as she could, the GR re-emerged about 20 feet from where they stood. _'Ah, that's right. I should active the comm. screen so I won't have to come out her again,' _she moved towards the capsule with the intent of going inside and fixing it when Vegeta cut her off.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Bulma, exasperated, threw her hands up in the air, "Vegeta, what is your problem tonight? First you won't open the GR enough for me to properly talk to you, then you insist that I come inside to wait for you to change, and now you're back to not wanting me inside. Make up your mind already!"

"The first time I thought that you just wanted to say something trivial and pointless and I didn't want you wasting my time, the second time I knew you'd be waiting for me so I granted you access to the warmth inside the chamber while I went to change. As for now, I want to get back to training which you coming inside to do who knows what would no doubt stall my already limited time."

"For your information, I just wanted to go inside and make sure that the comm. screen is working so I won't have to come all the way outside to tell you something important."

"I don't need you interrupting me every two seconds," he started before Bulma cut him off.

"Oh, please, every two seconds indeed. Like I'd want to see your temper tantrums any more than I have to. At least turn it on tonight so I can tell you when we're all going to the party so you won't come looking for us to fix your bots or make you dinner."

"Fine, I'll turn it on, Woman, now go on and get ready for your countdown and leave me alone so I can finally get something worthwhile done," he almost turned to storm off when he saw her face fall.

"Okay then, Vegeta, I'll leave you to your work then. Sorry that my company is so unbearable that you can't stand me for a few minutes."

Vegeta seemed a little shocked by her statement, "I didn't say that your company was unbearable, just that I don't want distractions from my training."

Sighing, she turned towards the house. She was starting to wonder if it was possible to skip tonight and just go to bed. It wasn't at all late but the events of the last few weeks were sapping all the energy out of her, "You don't have to say anything, Vegeta. Whether my company is a distraction when you're training or slightly tolerable when you're not, you obviously don't want it so I'll leave you be." Not wanting him to see the tears that started falling from her eyes, she started to run towards the house, ignoring the fact that Vegeta clearly stepped forward to stop her.

'_Why am I getting upset about this? He's the same jerk he always is so why does it hurt so much to have him push me away?'_ Finally reaching her room, she slammed the door shut and leant against it for a moment fighting the urge to sink to the ground and curl up into a ball before going to the bathroom for a shower. As horrible as she felt right now she had to get ready for the party. "I'm not going to think about him anymore tonight. I'm going to pamper myself and go all out dressing up," she thought as she wiped away her tears with a determined smile. "After all, I'm a beautiful woman in my prime and I should look my best. Who knows, maybe I'll be swept off my feet by a mysterious, charming prince…," her frown returned as the first person that popped into her head that fit the description was the very one she was trying to forget, "never mind."

After hopping in the shower and pampering herself to the max, she walked into her closet to find the perfect outfit for the evening. Instantly her eyes were drawn to a short, strapless, red dress. "No, that's more of a club party dress than something like this, not to mention that it's way too cold." She looked around a little longer but found that her thoughts kept coming back to the red one. Walking back over to it, she pulled it out and looked at it. "It's a little informal but I could pull it off. When is the last time I even wore this thing?" She wanted to put the dress back and continue looking for another dress but her mind refused to move on until she figured out why it was calling to her so much.

Then it all came back to her: August. Her last date with Yamcha. Vegeta stopping her at the door. And despite her deciding not to think about Vegeta anymore tonight she couldn't stop the memory from resurfacing.

=5 months ago=

Bulma hummed cheerfully as she made her way downstairs for her night out with Yamcha. He had called for the first time in 3 months to apologize and take her out before he left to train in the wilderness for a year. She had accepted because she felt that they both needed some finality and closure to their relationship.

She stopped by the mirror in the hall to make sure that her strapless dress wasn't showing too much cleavage and that the hemline was smoothed down, stopping just above her knees. "Perfect, I'll certainly catch some eyes but it's not enough to make him think I want him as anymore than a friend. So I took a little longer than needed. It'll be good to make Yamcha wait a bit." Looking out the window, she noticed that the GR was off meaning that Vegeta had already called it quits for the night. "Hopefully he'll actually get some rest while I'm gone."

Reaching the front door, she twisted the knob and pulled the door opened only to feel the knob fly out of her hand and the door slam loudly. She jumped at the sudden motion and looked up to a gloved hand holding the door flush against the door jamb. Though her mind told her that it was obviously Vegeta behind her, the hot breath rustling the fine hairs on her neck caused her body to lock up preventing her from confirming it.

"And where exactly are you going?"

Vegeta's husky voice caused her entire body to shiver but it wasn't hard to figure out why. She was literally trapped with nowhere to go. In front of her was a solid door that she couldn't budge. To her left was a wall and to her right was his arm. Directly behind her was his solid body, as unmovable as the door. She swallowed down the sudden dryness in her throat. "I'm going out to eat and to dance. People here do that when they feel the need to get out of the house."

There was a moment of silence before she felt his mouth directly by her ear. "And you're going with the weakling because?"

Bulma swallowed again and straightened up; the last thing she wanted was for him to think that he intimidated her. He totally did but she wouldn't let him know that. "Not that it's any of your business but he asked me out to say goodbye before leaving to train in the wild for awhile. That and he wanted to make amends for our harsh break up. It's not a date, it's just as friends."

She jumped as she felt him move his fingers across her upper back. "Just as 'friends'? In these indecent clothes?"

"I've told you before, Vegeta, people on this planet dress like this. Just because I want to look nice doesn't mean that I'm trying to seduce him."

"I've seen you wear less suggestive clothes than these before."

"I decided to dress up. I may be through with Yamcha but that doesn't mean that I can't look for another man. It would be a waste to stay single forever."

"Is it so easy, Woman?" Confused at that statement, he continued, "To simply find someone that knows who you really are, your dreams, your desires," he moved his mouth back to her ear, "your needs?" She shivered again at the possible double meaning of his words. "Is it so easy to become comfortable enough that you truly let go and enjoy another's company?"

He had a point. Some believed in love at first sight but the truth was that it didn't work like that. There was little chance of meeting a guy tonight that truly wanted a relationship or that would understand that she needed mental stimulation as well as physical.

But there was something else she knew for sure. "You'll never know if you don't try. It may take some time but in the end it's worth it to find someone that you can truly enjoy and let go, to no longer need to hide behind a façade that is made for the world and to instead allow you to confide your true self to another."

She knew it wasn't wise to word her answer in a way that made it seem like she was talking about him but if there was anyone who needed to really let go and enjoy someone else it would be Vegeta. After all, just as much as she would have problems finding someone that didn't want her solely for her looks, her company, or her money, someone that could put up with her attitude and stubbornness, it would be just as hard, if not harder, for Vegeta to find someone who would listen to his past and not want to run away screaming.

After what felt like a lifetime, Vegeta finally moved away allowing her to turn and look at him for the first time that night. "How much longer until the upgrade is finished?" he asked while walking towards the kitchen.

She smiled, far from upset about his change of subject, "Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but you'll be happy to know that I found a way to improve it to give you better effects than what I quoted you before." He nodded but she decided to say one more thing before she left, "You know Vegeta, you're going to be here for awhile so you might as well try some new things," he turned to look at her but didn't say anything so she pushed on. "I'm not saying that you should come out with me to dance or anything that involves lots of people but little things like swimming or watching TV with us. There's going to be some holidays coming up soon as well and I'm sure that you'll learn a lot from all the things we do then that you'll find enlightening."

He seemed to think about it for awhile, "Maybe if I have time and the activity isn't completely idiotic," he answered before walking out of the room.

With a smile, Bulma turned and quickly headed out, their conversation completely worth being 10 minutes late.

=Present day=

Much like her memory, Bulma's face also held a smile. "That's right; this dress incited such a reaction from him that he refused to let me go until I told him what I was planning. And he took my advice about letting go and joining me with odd activities." She moved in front of a mirror, holding the dress in front of her. "Maybe he is trying to find someone that he can confide in. After all, I know about his past and I haven't run away yet. And despite his complaining about my way of dress and being a distraction, he hasn't run off either. In fact," she pulled the dress on and smoothed it down so it covered her curves perfectly, "maybe my way of dress and being a distraction are one in the same," her smile turning into a wicked smirk of her own. Pulling out all the stops, she made sure that every element of her outfit and make-up was perfect.

'_One more chance, Vegeta. If you don't make a move tonight that proves that you're interested in something more than being acquaintances, even a subtle one, I'll let this go.'_

Moving downstairs to the lab, Bulma checked to make sure that everything was in place and that nothing she didn't want to show was showing. Once sure that everything was fine she moved to the comm. screen and turned it on, happy to see that Vegeta had fixed it.

Her smile fell as she saw the state of the room. Parts of droids had been thrown throughout the room, the floor was scorched and the walls looked dented. All in all, it looked like Vegeta had been working out more intensely than usual. She'd have to give the chamber an overhaul tomorrow for sure. She looked around, moving the camera to see if Vegeta had injured himself. After a few heart pounding moments, she finally saw him sitting in the floor amongst the rubble and let of a breath she didn't know she had been holding. At first glance she thought that he was meditating but upon closer inspection she saw that he was holding his head in one of his hands like he was thinking or worrying about something.

She was quickly brought out of her thoughts by Vegeta's voice, "Off to your party, Woman?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to check-in to see if you need anything before I go. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for me to fix up the room though."

Vegeta turned to scowl at her comment but his words stopped as he realized what she was wearing.

Noticing him looking at her appearance, exactly as she had planned, she gave herself a quick turn so he could see her at all angles, "How do I look?"

"Like you're going to freeze," he said quickly but made no attempts to look away.

Bulma did her best to not let her disappointment show on her face, "Well, I'll be inside for the most part. Not to mention that I'll be drinking and dancing which will raise my temperature more."

Vegeta's scowl deepened at that comment. "I'm sure plenty of males that will be excited to that spectacle."

Bulma nearly laughed at loud at that comment. He was hiding it well but she was almost positive that he was pouting. _'Could he possibly be jealous? Perhaps saying that I'll freeze is his way of saying that he doesn't want me dressed like this in front of others.' _"Don't worry, if I get too hot or tipsy I'll step outside to one of the private fire pits. We set them up outside so that people can get away and enjoy the night air if they want to get away from the crowds but don't want to get chilly."

Noticing that Vegeta's scowl softened a little she decided that she'd let him get back to his private time, "Anyway, I'll leave you to your training. See you later, Vegeta." Receiving little more than a nod, she turned off the screen and left.

"Alright Vegeta, I'll take that as you being interested, or at least that you don't want to share the view. But you're going to have to do more than that to prove that you're worth going after. Hopefully you'll get the subtle hint and make a move."

* * *

Several hours went by and the New Year's party was another sound success for Capsule Corporation. She chatted with many of the social elites, young and old, male and female, and as the night went on she decided to excuse herself from her Father's side for some fresh air.

Checking the clock she realized that it was a little less than five minutes until midnight. "Crap, I didn't realize that this much time went by. I was so busy greeting and talking about projects that I didn't get to do anything fun. Not to mention that even if Vegeta did plan on coming to see me, he wouldn't wait this long."

Opening the door to the deck where one of the fire pits was located, she shivered as she was hit with the freezing night air. "Luckily no one is here. I really don't feel like making anymore small talk right now."

Quickly moving to the fire pit in hopes of warming up, she found a seat that she could still see the action inside from and sat down. After holding out for another two minutes, she rubbed her arms. _'Darn it. The fire pit is warm but it doesn't help if you're not wearing any sleeves.'_

For the second time that day, she felt a warm wave of heat wash over her. Instantly looking behind her she saw that Vegeta was indeed standing behind her. "Oh hi, Vegeta, where did you come from?"

Keeping his eyes on hers, he tilted his head gesturing towards an overlooking balcony.

Bulma's mouth dropped in shock at this, "You mean that you saw me sitting her freezing and you didn't say anything?"

"I believe you said that you didn't want to make anymore small talk."

"I meant with the guests. I'm tired of talking about work and things that people really don't care about and … you know what, never mind. I'm going to go back inside, the countdown's about to start. You don't want my company anyway."

She ignored the cold she felt walking away from him and started to open the door only to, in a way reminiscent to what happened in August, have it ripped from her loose grasp as Vegeta stood behind her holding the door closed, effectively trapping her. Once again she felt heat wash over her but she wasn't sure if it was from her ki or from the sheer warmth coming from his body.

"You have a bad habit of making up things, Woman."

"Well then, perhaps you'd like to enlighten me about the truth then, but are you willing to tell me?"

"You'll never know if you don't try."

Bulma smiled a bit as he used her words from the last time they were in this situation. "Why didn't you want me to go inside the GR?"

"There wasn't any need for you to. I was the one that disabled it, so I was completely capable of turning it back on."

"So I saw, but it doesn't change the fact that twice you refused to let me inside."

"I didn't want your scent where I train."

Confused, Bulma narrowed her eyes, "My scent? Are you saying that I stink?"

He chuckled, a low rumble that told her he found her question amusing. "Far from it. Your human senses aren't nearly as advanced as mine so you can't understand it completely but every person and thing has its own unique scent and when I'm trying to concentrate they become a distraction."

Bulma thought about that for a moment. _'I can actually understand that better than he thinks. I remember one valentine's day, Yamcha had gotten me a nice bouquet of flowers but I couldn't work with them nearby because the scent was different from what I was used to in the lab.'_

Vegeta's answer worked for her so she decided to move on to another more sensitive one. "Why did you kiss me after we set up the tree?"

Though she couldn't see him she could tell that he stiffened quite a bit before answering, "It's your planets custom, is it not?"

"Yes, but if you didn't want to kiss me you could have just done a quick peck or ignored it completely. I told you before that mistletoe doesn't force people to do things against their wills."

"Who said that I didn't want to kiss you?"

Bulma blushed at that comment. _'He almost seems offended that I would suggest that he did something against his will.'_ "I don't know, the way you kissed felt like you wanted more but afterwards you just ran off like you wanted to be as far away as possible."

Another pause as she felt Vegeta shift behind her, "excluding that brush of the lips from before, that would have counted as our first kiss. Moving beyond that would have been too much. Despite that," he let out a breath as he tried to find the proper way to say what he wanted, "despite that, I wanted to. I've been through a lot in my life but I've never had the urge to engage myself with someone that I wouldn't throw away after being used. In the end, I decided that I wasn't ready for it, so I left."

Bulma's breathing got heavy as she took in all that he said. She was shocked that he would come out and confess to something like that. Everything felt odd and she suddenly became aware of the voices nearby. She looked at the people inside realizing that they were counting down the final seconds to midnight. She jumped a little when she felt Vegeta's other hand move to hold her chin, turning her face to look at him.

"I'm not ready for that but this much at least," he brushed her lips, the people in the background counting down the last five seconds, "this much, I do know that I want."

And with that, he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. Bulma could hear the people inside burst out into cheers and though she knew that it was because the year changed, she felt as if they reflected her own feelings at that moment.

Turning around to face Vegeta fully she pulled away from the kiss and traced his face with her eyes. "Happy New Year, Vegeta," she said before leaning back into the kiss which he eagerly accepted and quickly deepened.

Yes, it was true that Vegeta came from a different world than her and that he did things differently. But in the end he was worth trying for. She decided that her resolution this year would be to help Vegeta become more comfortable with this new idea. It may not be forever but she was determined to help him open up to her. It would be well worth the wait.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I love to hear what you think so please review.


	5. Winter Delights

Disclaimer: Dragonball and it's characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own them nor do I claim to.

* * *

Bulma looked up at the hues of gray covering the sky. '_We'll definitely be getting snow tonight,'_ she thought with a small smile. _'Perhaps I can get Vegeta to spend some quality time with me curled up next to the fire. Well, I'll be curled up, he'd probably be sitting.' _

At the thought of Vegeta her eyes saddened but her smile remained. It was nearly the end of January and once again Vegeta shut himself in the gravity room to train non-stop. Despite her earlier complaints about his attitude towards how people on this planet did bizarre things, she was missing the moments they had together. While she understood that training was very, very important for the upcoming threat, she was still a little put off by Vegeta's advance and retreat attitude concerning their 'relationship'.

She had tried to be patient and let him come at his own pace but aside from a few deep kisses he still hadn't tried to do more. _'He can't be a virgin. He's too confident in what he's doing. So what's his problem?'_

Sure he had told her that he wasn't used to doing things like this with a person he wasn't going to throw away afterwards but why would that stop him? They were both adults and while she did prefer monogamous relationships she wasn't so old fashioned to be expecting him to propose before they went to bed together.

She blinked at that thought. 'Is that what he's thinking? That I will expect that much out of him if we do anything?' She tilted her head in thought at that, _'Surely he wouldn't since she had obviously been with Yamcha before they had split, but if that's the case I really need to clear things up and lay what's okay and not on the table.'_

"Bulma," jumping at the sound of her name, she turned toward her father who had been packing luggage into the car, "are you paying attention?"

"Ah, sorry Papa," quickly thinking of an excuse, she turned her eyes back to the window to look at the sky, "I was just think about how it's likely to snow tonight."

Dr. Briefs frowned at her, "Yes, and I was just telling you that Vegeta doesn't need to use the GR until I go and pick up the new generator, especially if it snows. The current one can't compensate for the amount of cold and it'll shut down. It should be fine for tonight but could you tell him not to use it until we get back with it."

"Ha ha, did Mom talk you into letting her go with you?" At her Father's 'what do you think look' she laughed. Her Mother seemed to be able to turn the most mundane trips into vacations. "Don't worry, I'll tell him about it."

As the sound of the door closing was heard, they both turned to look as Bunny came towards them with her suitcase in tow. "Now Bulma dear, I've made plenty of food so that handsome Mr. Vegeta won't starve while we're gone."

"Mom, you'll only be gone 2 days," she said while rolling her eyes.

Having put Bunny's bag into the car, Bulma kissed her parents and waved as they drove off to the airport before going back into the house.

Pulling off her coat, she hung it by the door before heading down to the lab to contact Vegeta and get to do some work. She paused at the mirror in the hallway to see if she needed to change. After all, her black v-neck thin-knit sweater, short blue denim skirt, and 2-inch heel black ankle boots weren't exactly within the dress code for the lab but with a shrug she decided that she wasn't going to do any chemical or mechanical work so there wasn't a reason to bother. _'Besides, I look hot in this. I'll just consider this phase one to my plans to subtly get closer to Vegeta.'_

Finally reaching the lab she went over to the Comm. Screen to contact him but paused before hitting the main screen. She was very thankful that Vegeta had not disabled the screen after the New Year's party and that was partially due to her only using it once since then for a real emergency. This didn't really count as an emergency so she decided to just leave him a message that he could listen to whenever he got a break.

Moving her fingers to the keyboard, she swiftly typed:

_Vegeta, due to the snow you won't be able to train in the GR until dad gets back. _

_You may continue training tonight but it will be shut down after midnight._

_Bulma._

Her evil side was tempted to put a heart or something equally silly next to her name but her professional side decided that it was best to leave it as is. _'Who knows what Vegeta would think I meant if I put a heart there.' _With a smile, she hit send before moving to her desk. Shrugging into a lab coat and putting on her glasses that she used for detailing and computer work, she sat down and got to work.

About 4 hours later she heard the Comm. Screen turn on. Moving her rolling chair away from the desk, she turned to look at Vegeta's face on the giant screen. He looked her up and down, taking in her outfit, before focusing on her face. _'So he likes it. That's good to know,'_ she thought as she gave him her famous smile, "Do you need something, Vegeta?"

"Why does it snowing tomorrow mean that I can't train?"

"Dad has to go pick up a new generator that'll be capable of withstanding powering up the GR in low temperatures. The current one can't handle it efficiently and will shut down to prevent any accidents. He'll be back the day after tomorrow so you'll be able to train by the afternoon."

"If there was a more efficient generator available, then why wasn't it already being used?"

Bulma rolled her eyes but kept her confident smile, much to Vegeta's displeasure. "For your information we had a better generator that you carelessly blew up last May. We ordered another generator but they told us that it would take 8 months to make it so we were forced to use our emergency back-up generator for the house to make a new GR so you could continue training. However, since it was only built to run electricity in the house in case of power outages, it doesn't have enough energy to work through cold weather since it barely made it through your non-stop training in the summer heat without weekly maintenance."

Vegeta scoffed, his usual scowl in place, "So what am I supposed to do for an entire day while waiting for your Father to get back?"

"Hmm, I don't know Vegeta but," she carefully crossed her legs, making sure that nothing indecent was exposed despite the fabric of her skirt riding higher up her thigh, "I'm sure we can think of _something_ to keep your entertained," she finished with a polite smile.

She watched him carefully as she spoke watching as his eyes flickered to her newly revealed skin before returning to her face and scoffing before turning off the screen. Now that she was sure that he wasn't able to see or hear her, she let out a laugh. "Oh Vegeta, you may be a Sayian but you're still a man," she spoke aloud to herself as she smirked evilly, "And this 'Woman' won't give in until she wins you over."

Tomorrow he was forced to take the day off. She doubted that he would want to play in the snow with her, which was something she definitely was going to do, but an evening alone would be perfect to try and close the distance between them.

Smirk still in place, she spun back to her desk to finish up as much work as possible so she wouldn't have a lot left to do in the morning before going to her room for a good night's sleep. She was in for a fight tomorrow so she needed to be at her best.

Bulma smiled as she pushed the curtains apart and looked at all the snow that piled up. She loved how different the city looked right after it snowed. So caught up in the wonderful view, she almost missed seeing something fly off into the distance. With a frown she realized that it could only be Vegeta, no doubt off to train away from the compound since he was denied the GR.

"Hopefully he'll come back before I set my plan into action. Now to finish up that project so I can go have some fun."

Having worked late on the device, she finished around 4 in the afternoon, giving her a few hours to enjoy herself. She dressed in her cream colored snow pants and matching jacket before pulling on some red gloves and boots and finishing off with her red scarf and hat. Nice and toasty, she made her way outside.

"Wow, it's colder than I thought. Oh well, more reason to get moving."

She was home alone in the middle of a private compound so she didn't have to worry about looking childish so she decided to do everything she could think of. She fell to the ground and made snow angels, she ran around making patterns with her footprints, taking advantage of the thick ice on the pool she went ice skating; all in all it was a fun day. Deciding that she had to make a snow man she made one that looked like Goku who she playfully referred to as Snow-ku.

While Bulma was having more fun than she had in awhile, she knew that within the hour it'd be dark so she'd have to go in. Not to mention that she had played for hours already and she was tired and very, very cold. _'Snuggling up next to the fire in my comfy sweater and a hot cup of cocoa sounds amazing right now. It's too bad that I haven't seen Vegeta since he left this morning. It's kind of hard to seduce him when he's not here,' _she thought with a frown.

While that thought made her sad another one popped in to take its place, _'Or is he?' _If she'd noticed anything about her past experiences with the Prince, it was that he was often closer than she thought he was and that he couldn't resist catching her doing something embarrassing. But more than that, he couldn't resist letting her know that he caught her while she was doing something embarrassing.

_'A little embarrassment to bring him out into the open? Totally worth it,'_ she thought while trying to hold back a smirk. Either he was here and she got him to come out from his hiding place or he wasn't and no one saw her doing something stupid. It was win/win, at least in her book it was. 'But what will do it?'

Looking around, her eyes locked on Snow-ku. _'Really? This'll be too easy.'_

Reaching down, she scooped up some snow and shaped it into a ball. Then, recalling her years of being fighters, she jumped back into a fighting pose with a serious look on her face. "So you've come, Snow-ku? I knew you couldn't resist the idea of giant meat balls, but unfortunately they're not 'meat balls'," she paused for dramatic effect like all villains do, "they're 'meat bombs'! You've clearly fallen into my trap," she let out her best villain laugh, the boisterous, over dramatic type you only heard in old timey movies where young women were tied to train tracks while the world's slowest train made its way down the track.

Stepping forward, she threw the snow ball at Snow-ku but, being that she was too far away to hit him, missed him by a few feet. "That poisoned pork chop you ate didn't make you too weak to dodge, I see, but it won't be enough to save you," scooping up two handfuls of snow, she ran closer to throw the balls while jumping side to side, missing Snow-ku again despite there being less distance between her and the snowman. She pouted, her real pride getting damaged by that, "Curses, you're good at this, but you won't be able to dodge this one," she dramatically declared as she picked up a huge amount of snow between her hands.

Not even thinking about Vegeta anymore, she found herself really getting into her silly game. "Special technique: Big Snow Attack!" and with that she used all of her strength to throw the dense ball directly into the air, throwing herself off balance in the process. The ball went up only a little before crashing down directly on top of Snow-ku, knocking him over. "Ha-ha! Take that Snow-ku," she let out a triumphant cheer but still being off balance and unable to find solid footing due to the snow, she finally fell onto her back.

Even though she was breathing heavily and could hear her heartbeat thumping in her ears, she easily heard the peals of laughter coming from the house to her left. She opened her eyes to look up at the Balcony that Vegeta had apparently been sitting on and was surprised to see that he was so tickled that he had completely lost his stoic composure and was laughing so hard that he had to hold his side. As humiliating as it was for her right now she found that the rare sound of his unstrained laughter was worth it. She sat up and gave him a glare, deciding to feign anger so that he wouldn't figure out that it had been a set-up. "And just what is so funny."

Vegeta, seeming to realize that he wasn't his practiced calm self, reigned himself in enough to answer, "Woman, I don't even know where to begin answering that only that," he chuckled a little bit more, "only that I'm very glad I decided to stop training early."

Bulma looked away with a pout, but was secretly smiling, "Did you have a nice workout?"

"As decent as possible on this planet, Woman. Though I prefer warmer temperatures over these frigid ones it is good to see how my body handles new situations."

"Are you hungry?"

"I already had dinner," Vegeta said, his amused grin returning to his face, "but I didn't think I'd get a show as well. Are you going to try and tell me that this is a custom that everyone on this planet takes part in or are you going to finally confess that you're just a bizarre woman in general?"

Bulma blushed deeply at that comment. _'How long had he been here, watching her run around like a five-year-old?' _She didn't consider how long he had been home when she had set off in her attempts to make him reveal himself. "Well, good. I don't feel like cooking for you anyway."

"That's fine; I'm not in the mood for meat bombs and poisoned pork chops."

_'Ugh, how embarrassing. I know that was my intent but I got into it more than I thought.'_ Resisting the urge to hide her face in shame she decided to instead push forward and set up the plan to get them closer.

"Well, I think we've both had enough of the cold so why don't we go in and warm up by the fire. I'll make us some hot cocoa and we can let ourselves unwind a bit, what do you say?"

She noticed him eyeing her with an odd look, clearly on edge about her not being upset with him catching her off guard, but regardless he jumped off the ledge and headed inside.

Once inside, Bulma picked up the fireplace remote and started up the fire. "Just take a seat and I'll bring you your drink when it's ready," she said before moving to the kitchen to start the pot of water to boil. Deciding that she would have enough time to change, she headed towards the stairs, pausing to see that he actually stayed behind to join her. _'I guess that he's okay with spending time with me tonight. That's good.' _Seeming to notice her behind him, he turned to look at her. "I'm going to go change out of these wet clothes." Taking his turning back as an answer she continued up to her room.

Once there, she stripped and went to her closet to choose something comfy. However she was instantly drawn to her favorite sweater, smiling as she remembered how appalled Vegeta had been to see her wearing something so oversized. "In fact, this might be perfect for tonight," her evil thoughts clearly showing on her face as she finally decided on what to do.

Pulling on the oversized red sweater and a pair of tight black leggings, she made her way back down to make the cocoa. Picking up the mugs, she made her way over the Vegeta who had finally sat down next to the fire. She smiled when she saw Vegeta look her outfit up and down, his frown looking close to a pout, his displeasure not needing to be spoken aloud.

"Here you go," she said before sitting next to him. Sipping her cocoa slowly, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sweet warmth that crept down her throat, her pleasure obvious through an audible moan. Opening her eyes, she looked over at Vegeta in time to catch him staring at her before looking down at the untouched mug in his hands. "I promised it's not poisoned." Looking back at her, he finally took a drink of it. "How is it?"

"Like liquid chocolate, I suppose."

"That's good." She leaned back against the fireplace and enjoyed the sound of the fire crackling. Technically she should be moving forward, trying to get closer to him and getting some questions answered, but she couldn't think of any way to casually bring the subject. However, she soon found that she didn't have to as Vegeta was the one to break the silence.

"How did someone like you get associated with Kakarot?" At her confused look, mainly from being asked something completely random and about his rival no less, he went on to add, "It just seems odd that a pampered scientist with little to no knowledge of fighting would be around a group of fighters."

"I suppose it is odd but that's the magic of the dragonballs, you meet a lot of people and learn a lot of things in the time you're looking for them that you come out of the experience with a new outlook on life. Anyway, when I was 16, I found a dragonball in my attic and after reading about the legend in a book I analyzed it and made a radar that could find them no matter where they were. After travelling for miles and finding another one on my own, I followed the radar to Goku's house far in the mountains. At that time he was only 12 and living all by himself, convinced that the dragonball he had was his Grandpa." She chuckled at that. "He'd never seen a car before and nearly killed me thinking that I was a monster but I finally convinced him to join me in the search. I'm glad I did, I'd never have been able to make it on my own."

"I had to teach him everything though. He didn't even know the difference between boys and girls back then."

"That's pathetic."

"No, you don't understand. Not only could he not tell the difference by looking he… he touched people… down there to find out whether or not that had balls or not."

Vegeta looked more enraged than disgusted at that, "He did that to you?"

"No, he never did it to me." She shuddered to think what Vegeta would do if he knew about the incident that occurred the first night of her and Goku's trip when he pulled off her panties while she was sleeping and freaked out because he thought she was missing something. "And he always did it through their clothes so it's not as sick as you're thinking."

At her assurance Vegeta's raged dissipated and returned to just disgust. "Kakarot is more disturbed than I thought."

"In any case, we went on and met lots of different people including Oolong, Yamcha, and Puar," she knew that he wouldn't be happy to hear about her ex but there were few people that he'd remember and Yamcha and Puar had lived at her home for awhile. "We started out as enemies but eventually came together to defeat a bad guy who was going to use the balls to take over the world, you know, typical bad guy stuff. In the end, Oolong made a wish before the guy, wishing for a pair of panties of all things, and after being sealed away in a room only to nearly be killed by Goku transforming into a giant monkey, we all went on our ways, Goku to go train with Master Roshi while me and Yamcha started our relationship."

Vegeta seemed to be going over the story he'd just heard before looking back at her, "What were you going to wish for? After all, I doubt that your riches, beauty, and fame you're so proud of are something recent to you."

"I… I was going to wish for the perfect boyfriend," she said quietly, slightly embarrassed that she was telling him this.

"Pardon?" At her 'you heard me' look, "How is it possible that you couldn't find a mate for so long that you had to seek a higher power to grant you one?"

She decided to use that to flirt with him a little and fluffed her hair, "I'll take that as a 'you're so gorgeous that you shouldn't have any trouble finding a man'," enjoying the angry blush on his face, "but as you've said before it's hard to find someone that you can truly let go and be yourself around. I had met other guys before then but they were all more interested in my father's company, my family's money, or my looks so I wanted to find someone who wanted me for me. So when I met Yamcha, I thought he was cute and since he didn't know anything about who I was I knew that his feelings for me were solely because he liked me and I thought that despite not getting my wish I had found the perfect boyfriend anyway," she paused realizing that Vegeta was getting angry again and decided to change the topic back to favor him, "but as soon as he got over his initial fear of girls, he didn't feel the need to turn away from the attention other girls gave him, even started to look at woman as if we weren't in a relationship. We broke up several times but we'd get back together because he'd realize that the other girls couldn't hold his attention and I… I couldn't stand being alone. I know it was stupid but just felt that if I didn't love him I'd be alone forever so I kept letting him…,"

Her statement was cut off by Vegeta's lips sealing over hers. Pulling away with a scolding look in his eyes he growled out, "I'm tired of hearing you talk about him. If he was too stupid to realize that he had the most beautiful, witty woman in the world it's his loss," he was blushing deeply now but he allowed a smirk to stretch across his face as he moved closer and pushed her down, "and my gain."

Licking his lips he moved to kiss her again, more heated than he'd kissed her before. Bulma wove one of her hands into his hair, pulling him closer while using the other skim down his chest earning a purr-like growl for her efforts. She knew it was a risk but she wanted to push the issue farther moving her leg up to wrap behind him causing their lower bodies to be pulled flush and letting her feel how into the kiss he really was.

She would have gone further if it wasn't for the fact that Vegeta had stiffened more than she thought possible as his eyes popped open.

Bulma wasn't going to let him go, "What's wrong? You said that you've done this before, right?" she asked trying to keep her voice soft and low.

"Nothing's wrong, I just… I haven't…," he moved his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, struggling with the words.

"I'm not expecting anything out of you, Vegeta. We're both adults and perfectly capable of deciding whether or not we want to do something with each other without making a big deal out of it."

He shook his head, pushing up as much as he could without pulling away from his limbs. "You don't understand, Woman."

"Then tell me. I'm here, Vegeta, you don't have to go on struggling with something alone. Maybe I can help you; maybe it's something that we can solve."

"NO!" she jumped at his sudden yell, "It's not something you can help me with."

Bulma decided to not to continue to persist the topic, not wanting to risk making him so angry that he finds her not worth dealing with. Sighing, she moved her hand from his hair to gently trace his face, "You know, you make it hard for a girl to be confident about whether or not you're interested."

Vegeta scoffed at that, "If you were worried about it you wouldn't be wearing this frumpy garment before me again."

_'Got you,'_ Bulma thought as gave him her sexiest smile, "If you have a problem with it," she moved both of her hands to place his on the hem of her sweater, "then why don't you get rid of it?"

Vegeta's eyes seemed to be glued on their hands as she slowly moved his hands up which in turn caused her sweater rise, the skin to becoming exposed and her lacy bra coming into view.

Before she knew it she was looking up at the ceiling instead of Vegeta. Looking around she found that he had left the room completely. She smoothed her top back down with a smile before drinking the rest of her cocoa. _'I'm closing the distance between us, Vegeta. You may not be willing to tell me what you're problem is but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop getting close to you. Sooner or later I'll win you over and whatever problem you're struggling with will be incomparable to the acceptance I'll give you.'_ She smiled at the thought. She could give him all the acceptance he had been needing his whole life. After all, he'd just given her a glimpse at the acceptance that he'd give her in return and she wasn't going to give that feeling up for the world.

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I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I'd love to hear from you so please read and review. :3


	6. Chocolate Kiss

Disclaimer: Dragonball and it's characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own these characters nor do I claim to.

**A/N: **Takes place shortly after Winter Delights and is obviously set on Valentine's Day. Also if you're wondering why this chapter is out so much later than the others were it's because the oneshot schedule at the Blue and Black Bulma Vegeta livejournal community was changed from every week to every two weeks. I have a few already done (since I waited for quite awhile to here) but it'll still be about every two weeks or so from here on out.**  
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Bulma was beaming as she stepped into the house. She'd had a wonderful day of shopping and was now ready to make the rest of this day just as fulfilling. It was, after all, Valentine's Day and while she wasn't technically in a relationship with Vegeta, she still wanted to use the day to her advantage.

As she set her bags down in the kitchen, a smile appeared on her face. She'd really stepped up her game of seduction in the past two weeks and she was slowly starting to figure out what worked and what didn't.

For one thing Vegeta liked to take the lead. The more subtle her advances, the more it looked like Vegeta's idea the better. When he was confident about making a move on her, which was still only in the form of deep kissing, he could go as far as he wanted. However if she was to throw her arms around him, like she had last week, and attempt to do the same he would suddenly freeze, that same distant look gracing his eyes. She wasn't too thrilled with that, she liked to give as much as receive, but if he needed to 'be the man' in order for him to cross the threshold holding him back then so be it.

Another thing that happened last week, that made her want to slap herself for missing something so obvious, caused her to realize what the real reason Vegeta often commented on her choice of dress. She had thrown on another one of her big comfy sweaters planning to relax while working on the blueprints for a project when one of the companies lead scientists had stopped by to discuss a project with her and her father. As they were sitting down in the living room going over the specs, Vegeta had come for a late lunch. All through her re-warming the food her mother had saved for him she expected him to comment about her sweater making her look puffy but he said nothing. When he was finished and about to go out she finally decided to bring it up, casually asking how she looked. He looked her up and down before smirking saying that he was surprised that she actually could dress decently for some company.

It had confused her at first but then it suddenly dawned on her: He didn't want her to wear sexy clothes in front of other people, just him.

Thinking back to summer, he would often complain about her short shorts and tank tops when she was outside but he never complained about them when she was inside unless he got caught looking and had to make an excuse. And now that she had company over, her baggy sweaters were perfectly acceptable. She had an inkling that if she had been wearing the same tight knit shirt and short skirt that she had been wearing when he had contacted her about the GR not working if it snowed he wouldn't have been as calm about it. The mere thought of him throwing a fit and demanding that she put on more clothes made her giggle uncontrollably causing her to have to excuse herself from the meeting, important project or not.

He would not have of course, as she was already perfectly aware that he didn't do anything while there were others around. He didn't often advance on her but when he did, and he didn't stop because of his personal threshold, he would pull away and leave before they were caught by her parents. Not that she blamed him. One slip up and her mom wouldn't stop talking about million dollar weddings and what wonderful grandkids they make her.

She giggled at the thought of Vegeta's reaction to that kind of conversation. "Then again, it might just scare him away from pursuing this any further," frowning at that thought. She wasn't about to give up on this so it was definitely better to keep her parents in the dark about what was going on.

Her smile returned as she looked into one of her bags. She had specially ordered a new, super sexy piece of lingerie in hopes that she'd somehow convince Vegeta to come back to her room. "Now if only I have to courage to ask him. Ugh, this isn't my first time asking a man to bed. Why do I feel like an inexperienced teenager again?"

She pushed the bag to the side and pulled out another full of chocolate making supplies. She had never made chocolate before, preferring to order expensive chocolates from the world's best, but she doubted that Vegeta would think that expensive chocolates were any better than dollar chocolates from the drugstore. No the best chocolate for Vegeta would be ones that she personally made, solely for the fact that they both knew that her experiences with cooking was lacking and he seemed to get amusement out of her failing. No doubt her covered in chocolate and giving him lumpy chocolate would instantly put him in a good mood.

Placing the sweetened chocolate on the counter, Bulma pulled out the recipe and started collecting the proper tools for the job. "Let's see," she pulled a large glass bowl out of the cabinet before looking back at the book while pulling on her mother's frilly pink 'kiss the cook' apron, "it says that I can make a simple double boiler by placing the bowl of chocolate on top of a pot of simmering water," her frown twisted at that. "Why can't I just melt the chocolate directly in the pan?"

"Because it'll cause the chocolate to separate, Bulma," Bunny's voice came ringing through the air.

Looking over, she saw her Mother put a large bowl of pasta in the fridge. 'Crap, I was so caught up in my thoughts that didn't notice she was in here,' she thought as she watched Bunny close the door and walk over to the cupboard.

"And that bowl is far too large. Just how much chocolate are you planning on making? Here use this one, it'll fit perfectly into this pot," she said as she pulled out the things she indicated and showed her how they fit.

Bulma blushed at her comment, not about to tell her that she originally planned on making a lot of chocolate since Vegeta already had a large appetite. "Oh, of course, I guess I just read large bowl and thought they meant a really large one. Thanks Mom," smiling, she went back to her business knowing, and dreading, the fact that her mom had not yet left the room.

"So…," Bunny started.

"So?"

"So, who's the special guy that's gotten you into the mood to personally make chocolate for him instead of buying it," she finished.

Bulma resisted the urge to smack herself on the forehead. _'Of course I had forgotten that making chocolates instead of buying them is a sign of being really in love with someone. Of course Mom would instantly pick up on that.' _It's nothing like that, Mom."

"But you were with Yamcha for years and never made him chocolate," she clutched her hands together over her chest and sighed, "and now, only months after breaking up with the poor boy, you've fallen so hard for another one that you wanting to make him something special. Ah, it's all so romantic," she sighed again, some wild fantasy of Bulma and a dark, handsome man running through her head.

Bulma grimaced, "It's really not like that, Mom. I just wanted to try making them this year. And you don't know if I'm giving these to anyone special."

"But it's 7 o'clock at night, sweetie," Bulma's eyes quickly darted over to the clock just now realizing how late it was, "and you already gave your Father and me that gourmet chocolate that we love so much so I really doubt that you're planning on giving that to anyone that you're not planning on seeing in a personal setting. Don't think I didn't see you sneak off at the end of the New Year's party," Bulma's eyes widened as they snapped back to her suddenly observant mother. "Oh it's love, alright. Soon you'll be getting married and having beautiful children."

"Mom, you don't even know who he is," at her Mother's larger smile she added, "not that I'm making it for anyone in particular." Her Mother's smile ceasing to wane, she went on, "Not to mention that I've told you before that I'm not the type to get married."

"What about children? Don't you want a nice baby to hold and take care of?"

Bulma sighed at that. She hated to admit to it but the thought of having a baby did cross her mind before, back when she was in a committed relationship with Yamcha. He was a nice guy but after being together so long and seeing how different their wants were, she questioned whether or not she wanted a child with him. In the end she had decided that she didn't know if wanted to be tied to Yamcha in such a way. But thinking about it again, she realized that the want never really went away.

"Maybe… maybe someday I'd like to have a child, but not now. First I have to find someone that I want to have a child with."

"So far you seem to be favoring this one. Maybe he's the perfect one for you. Oh I bet he's dark with a charming smile that instantly makes you weak in the knees; a real loner type that only shows his true self to you."

'_I hate it when Mom's fantasies actually sync up with my own. I certainly am planning on seeing Vegeta in a personal setting tonight,'_ her blush deepened as she looked away her mother to look for a knife to chop the chocolate_, 'but it's nothing like what's really going on. After all, I'm only making chocolate to get his attention and there's no way I'm in love with the smug jerk,'_ she shook her head at that thought. _'No, it's just lust. Lust coupled with intense feelings of happiness and understanding.'_

Not liking her train of thought, she started chopping the chocolate, intent on going through with this.

"You need to chop it more finely than that or it won't melt evenly."

"Mom," aggravation seeping into her voice despite her efforts to not let it bother her anymore, "can you please…"

"Oh, I understand, sweetie. You need to make this on your own so your perfect man will get the full effect of your love chocolates. I'm going to go ahead and put the marble slab in the freezer so it'll be ready to cool," Bulma could hear the fridge open to the left of her, just out of her peripheral vision, for a moment before it closed. "I'll leave you alone to your romance then," her Mother, bubbly as ever, and unaware of her daughter's annoyance, said as she left the kitchen.

Bulma sighed deeply but, looking at the far from uniform chocolate she'd already chopped up, went over her work again before putting it into the bowl. She made sure that the water in the pot was simmering before putting the bowl on top. "Well that wasn't so hard," she smiled, proud of her work. The chocolate still wasn't all that fine but it would do.

While she set about cleaning up her work space, she heard the fridge open. Not wanting to get any more praise for her 'perfect man', Bulma kept her eyes forward, wanting to avoid further conversation with her Mom at all costs. _'Probably checking to see if she's made enough leftovers for Vegeta. I swear she panics over the weirdest things. It's like she thinks Vegeta wouldn't be able to live through the night without a full stomach.'_

Shaking her head at her mother's foolishness she looked at the instructions. "Let's see, 'Keep stirring the chocolate until the temperature of the chocolate melts. Stopping at any time may cause the chocolate to melt unevenly and seize up,' Crap, I don't know what that means but it sounds bad!" Bulma rushed back over to the bowl, grabbing the spoon and quickly stirring, "Okay stir, stir 'make sure to stir slowly so the chocolate doesn't melt too fast causing it to separate' okay, slowly, slowly, 'make sure your slab of marble is removed from the freezer as cooling the chocolate too fast will cause crystals to form making the chocolate fall apart or become gritty' Crap I forgot to take the slab out, but I can't stop stirring, but surely a few seconds won't hurt it," she rushed over to the freezer and grabbed the slab out glad it wasn't too cold before rushing back to the stove to resume stirring.

Worried about being away for too long she quickly stirred, flinching when some of the chocolate flew out of the bowl hitting her cheek. "Oh well, I'll clean it off later. It's not like I expected to make it through this clean." Looking down, she confirmed that she'd gotten quite a bit on the apron as well. "At least I remembered to wear this frilly thing. I'd just die if I got chocolate on these clothes," she said as she reached down, glad that the apron fully covered her short white skirt.

Several long minutes of fretting later, the chocolate was melted enough to pour. Turning off the stove, she carefully picked up the bowl and moved over to the cold granite slab. "Okay, let's see now, 'Using a plastic spatula, scrape the chocolate out of the bowl and onto the slab. Then continue moving the chocolate with the spatula so that it is a quarter of an inch thick for 10 minutes or until cool and solid before using a cutter to make the shapes.' Well, that doesn't sound too hard."

Upon tilting the bowl up, however, she found that it was indeed hard as the chocolate kept spreading out nearly spilling over the edge before she even had a chance to scrape the rest out. "Ah, no no," putting the bowl down she looked around for frantically for the spatula, "Ah where is it, I know I had it before I started this. Surely I'm not that…," looking underneath the bowl of chocolate she just put down she found the spatula in question, "stupid," she finished with a sigh before getting to work saving what chocolate she could from spilling over.

After getting the chocolate on the slab into the center, she picked the bowl back up and got the rest out mixing it in. Finally, when the chocolate cooled enough that it longer was at risk of spreading, Bulma rested leant forward and rested her head in her hands, "I never want to see chocolate ever again."

Her tired mood instantly evaporated as an exhale of air resembling a chuckle behind her put her on edge.

'_Bulma, Bulma, Bulma. You may be a genius but sometimes you are so stupid,'_ she chided herself as she recalled everything that had happened. There was no reason for her mother to check if she had made enough food for Vegeta since Bulma had seen her putting food in before they had their conversation. That could only mean that the person who had come in and opened the fridge later was none other than Vegeta himself.

Turning around, she confirmed her thoughts seeing Vegeta, hand covering his mouth as he shook with restrained laughter. He had silently came in and gotten his dinner, eating it cold as he watched her embarrass herself once again.

'_Oh Kami, is anything going to go as planned tonight?'_ Looking back at her now semi-hard chocolate, she used her heart cutter to cut the chocolate into bite sized pieces, setting each on a plate. "I'm sure you've already noticed but I've made chocolate for your desert."

"Another tradition of yours?"

Bulma was confused at that remark. It's not like he didn't see her Mom making sweets all the time so why would it be so odd to see her doing it, other than the fact that she hadn't before. "Why do you say that?"

"Personally making chocolate instead of buying it."

Bulma's eyes widened at his casual remark. _'No, how much had he heard?_' Turning to gauge his reaction she was stunned by the fact that he apparently didn't mind the conversation. Instead his face was adorned with his smug smirk reminding Bulma of her Mom's 'dark, charming smile that instantly makes you weak in the knees description.

Bulma turned back to her cutting and plating, trying to control the nervous feeling in her stomach as she prepared herself for the explanation she was going to give. "It's Valentine's Day: a day for giving people you care about chocolates or other sweets."

She heard Vegeta scoff. "How many holidays do you people need to give each other things? I don't see why your crazy mother was acting as if this was any different."

Bulma braced herself knowing why this particular act of gift giving was completely different. "It's different because of the meaning behind the gifts. On other days like Christmas, gifts are given to family and friends." She swallowed, cutting a few more pieces out before going on. "While on Valentine's day people do sometimes give chocolate to friends and family, it's mainly a day for lovers. Depending on how much you like a person you may put more effort into the gift. Something simple for friends and family and something more personal for a significant other or a person you're harboring feelings for."

She heard the chair scrape across the floor and, worried that he was taking her gift the same way her Mother did, decided to quickly explain her true intents. "It's not anything like Mom was saying though, so don't worry. I'm not trying to marry you. I just thought that you'd appreciate it if I went through the frustration and embarrassment of making chocolates instead of just buying you some," she picked up one of the hearts and popped it into her mouth, "though I'm sure that the bought chocolates would have tasted better," she said with a frown. Her chocolates weren't bad but she knew that she could have bought better professionally made ones so good that you were willingly to ignore the price tag.

Another chuckle was heard behind her, sounding as if he'd walked around to the other side of the table and not closer to her. "You know me well, Woman. I won't deny that seeing you embarrassed and frustrated isn't amusing but what really gets me is your determination that you put into your work. I've never seen anything like it: such a frail woman charging full blast into something so insignificant as if the end effect is worth more than life itself," he said chuckling to himself, most likely thinking about her past endeavors.

Bulma was shocked but couldn't stop the smile creeping onto her face. It was short lived however as she heard the sound of paper crinkling, suddenly remembering that she had left her bags from earlier on the table. Turning around, she saw him trying to look into the bag with her 'secret weapon' in it and she jumped forward as quickly as she could and snatched it out of his loose grasp.

Vegeta's smile fell a little but upon seeing her face, a smirk quickly replaced it. Slowly he started moving towards her, the dark look on his face making Bulma unable to move away. She kept eye contact while holding the bag as far behind her as possible.

He leaned in and, thinking that he was going to kiss her, she closed her eyes. But instead of feeling his lips upon her she instead felt the odd sensation of his tongue running across her cheek carefully licking off the chocolate that she had gotten on her face when she was stirring earlier. The move was so primal, so different from the sweet and tender romance that she was used to that she felt her knees buckle and she knew that her cheeks were redder than they had been in awhile.

"Mmm," Vegeta practically purred as he pulled away slightly to look her in the eyes, "definitely better than store bought." He then leant in again, sliding his tongue against her lips and tasting the chocolate she'd eaten earlier. "Even better knowing that the weakling never got the same treatment."

He pulled away then, leaving her shaking as he moved to eat the chocolates she'd made. Bulma did her best to compose herself, pulling off her apron and hanging it up with shaky hands before moving towards the doorway. Pausing, she stilled her nerves and gathered her resolve. _'Come on girl, you can do this. It's now or never.'_

She let a smile spread across her face as she turned back to Vegeta, who was still facing away eating. Placing on hand on the doorjamb, she made a seductive pose. "Ve-ge-ta," her smile turned into a smirk as he visibly stiffened before turning to look at her, "there's a little bit more to your Valentine's gift," she let the bag dangle loosely in her fingers, enjoying the fact that he watched the bag move back and forth with his eyes, "that is… if you have the courage to not run away this time."

At that comment, Vegeta's eyes snapped up to hers and narrowed. "Don't taunt me, Woman, you won't like the results," the snarl not nearly as threatening with the red gracing his cheeks.

Bulma just shrugged as she turned away, heading for the staircase, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your training so how about we meet up around 11 in my room? If you don't come up at that time I'll take it as you turning down my gift and we'll go on with our lives like before."

"What is that, some sort of ultimatum? Not everyone is free to do what they please like you are."

Bulma frowned a little at that. "What exactly is preventing you from being free, Vegeta? You're a grown man who's not in a relationship. No one is going to find out about us and force us to get married against your will. Sure you're a prince but no one is around to delegate who you can be with and who you can't be. Sorry, I know that it's none of my business, I just can't figure out what you're talking about." Not hearing him respond she turned to look at him shocked at the look on his face.

He looked like he has just had an epiphany.

He moved his hand up to his face as if rolling her words in his head. If Bulma was a little confused before, now she was flat out lost. She jumped a little as a sudden, mad sounding chuckle was heard in the room. Vegeta slowly moved his hand away from his face and the confusion Bulma was feeling was quickly replaced with fear at the dark smile on his face.

"You don't know anything about me, Woman, and yet you're still able to say exactly what is needed in situations like this."

"Does this mean that you're going to tell me what was wrong?"

Vegeta's pleased look left a bit but quickly returned, "No, my reasons are my own. They are not your concern."

Bulma's frown twisted before she shrugged, as if saying that it didn't really matter to her, before resuming her walk to the stairs. "I hope you enjoyed your chocolates."

She made it halfway upstairs before he finally answered, "See you at 11 then."

Another shudder ran through her. This may have been what she had wanted but she couldn't get rid of the feeling that she'd just unleashed an untamable beast.

* * *

Bulma couldn't stop the nervous flutters in her stomach as she checked the clock for the fifth time in as many minutes. _'One minute 'til 11. Ugh, back to the inexperienced teenager feeling again. I'll just die if Vegeta figures out how nervous I am.' _

Unable to stop herself, she jumped up to examine herself in the mirror again. The lingerie she'd ordered was everything she could have hoped for. The black lace was soft and didn't scratch her delicate skin and the blue satin matched her every curve perfectly. The piece was far from trashy even bordering on subtle sexy which is why she had order it considering Vegeta's previous behavior. Now that he seemed to have crossed the threshold she wondered if the piece would be too subtle.

She sighed and moved towards the door to unlock it. "No use worrying about it now. Either he likes it or he doesn't." She opened the door and looked around to see if there were any signs of him coming. The hallway was empty though. She frowned a bit at that. _'Maybe he's not coming; maybe he was just teasing me before.' _She didn't know why this had become so important but she didn't think she'd be able to take it if he was just playing with her. A shiver ran through her body and she tried to push those thoughts away.

All her fears fled her as she was once again engulfed in a now familiar wave of heat. She smiled as she felt warm hands slide around her waist from behind. "Couldn't find the door, Vegeta."

His body pressed into hers and he gently ran his lips along her neck."The window was closer. Besides, I got another show entering this way."

Bulma tried to get angry at that remark but his lips gently grazing her neck and his hands softly moving up and down her stomach and hips made her unable to feel much as than pleasure. "Pe…peeping Tom," she finally managed to choke out.

He chuckled at the weak insult. "I didn't see you changing, just you pacing about the room a bit. Besides," he reached in front of her to close the door and spin her around to face him, "the pleasure from my gift comes from unwrapping it, not the other way around," he finished, the dark smile once again making her shiver unable to move.

'_Yes, I have definitely unleashed a beast but something tells me that I won't be regretting it anytime soon. Now to make sure that the feeling is returned.'_ With her newly returned determination she ran her hands up his chest and around his neck to pull him closer. "Then by all means, don't feel the need to hold back," she smiled back at him before pulling him in for a kiss. _'Because I know sure won't.''  
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_I'm sorry if people are a little confused about what Vegeta's problem is but Bulma's in the same boat. Vegeta's just not at the point where he'll feel comfortable telling Bulma his entire life's story or the things that make him tick but I promise that I will explain it later on down the line.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to see some reviews. Thanks to all of those that took the time to fave the story and those that reviewed to tell me how they feel. I appreciate it very much._  
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	7. Cat's Game

This is part 1 of 3 chapters focusing on the birthday theme. This part is mostly for fun and set up but the next two will actually have the birthday part in it.

Disclaimer: Dragonball and its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own these characters nor do I claim to.

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32 years old.

Bulma looked at herself in her vanity mirror, checking her face for wrinkles or age spots that may have appeared overnight but found none. It was ridiculous, of course, to believe that there would be any physical change from 31 to 32 but Bulma wanted to assure herself that she was still the same gorgeous woman she was yesterday.

April always brought another year for Bulma and while in the past she had had her dear friends over to celebrate, they were all too busy with the upcoming threat and though she knew that some would drop everything if she invited them, she knew that they should be focusing on something far more important than giving her gifts and well wishes. No, this year it would just be a day off from all work, gifts from her parents, and maybe, if she was lucky, a little alone time with Vegeta.

Bulma looked over at the clothes laid out on the bed. Her parents had gotten her a wonderful new outfit and she was a little reluctant to wear it since any alone time with Vegeta might mean the end of it.

After finally coaxing Vegeta to let go of whatever it was that was preventing him from going any farther than first base, Vegeta had proven that he knew very well how to deal with a woman. All that confidence and cockiness that he constantly portrayed mixed with his secret charming side and came together in a way that Bulma could only describe as 'playful'.

Not playful as most would think it, Vegeta was more like a cat with a mouse: he stalked his prey before pouncing on them when they were least suspecting, tossed it around and thoroughly tired it out before enjoying his reward. Vegeta liked to sneak up on her, still choosing to use the window instead of the door, before catching her and teasing her to the point where resistance is futile. He would always be so proud of himself too, his playfulness and confidence that he succeeded making him irresistibly sexy.

She kind of wanted to tease him on his behavior but she didn't dare. One wrong slip up might just send Vegeta back into that secluded world of his where no one was to be trusted. Vegeta obviously thought higher of her than other women he had bedded, given the fact that he felt that coupling with her was more of a commitment than the one night stands he was accustomed to in the past, but that in no way meant that he'd be okay with her pointing out that he had a playful side.

Bulma jumped as she felt the increasing familiar arms wrap around her stomach and pull her flush against a hard chest. "Woman, it's past 10 a.m. and you're still in nothing but your underwear. Don't tell me that you just now woke up?" He questioned, less scolding her for sleeping in late and more pleased with the results of his 'work' last night.

"I'll have you know that I was up at 8 like always," she defended herself even as she moved her head to the side allowing his lips to skim over the sensitive skin of her neck, shivering slightly as his teeth gently scraped along. "But Mom gave me some new clothes she wanted me to wear so I came up to change. And what about you? You normally don't stop training until it's time for lunch."

She felt him smirk against her neck and knew that she really didn't have to ask the question when the answer was obvious. There were few times that he was this playful and his skilled hands were already working their magic running softly across the bare skin of her stomach adding to the overall effect his mouth had started earlier.

"Your Father is running a diagnostic on the GR and won't be done until the afternoon. As annoying as it is I decided that I might as well make the best of the time."

Bulma laughed as she thought about her earlier thoughts. "How lucky am I? I was just thinking about how spending a little time with you alone would make today even better, though this wasn't exactly what I meant."

"Oh? And why is today so special?" He asked though his hands, now moving away from her stomach to rub her more sensitive areas through her clothes, indicated that he really wasn't all that interested in the answer.

She barely resisted the urge to moan as she tried to explain herself, "Well today is…," her explanation was cut short as she felt Vegeta suddenly stiffen and suddenly move away from her, "Vegeta, what is it?" She turned to look at him but his attention was locked on the door.

Instantly she knew what was going on: One or both of her parents were coming down the hallway. It was most likely her Mother wanting to see how she looked since Vegeta had just told her that her Father was working in the GR.

With a sigh, she turned towards the bed to put on her new clothes. As she had figured out before when she was trying to seduce him, Vegeta absolutely refused to show her any attention in public, even if that public was just her parents. Before they had gotten together and she was showing him something his good mood would instantly disappear when anyone else approached. Now that they were together it wasn't any better. He didn't seem to want anyone to know that they were being intimate. _'I wish we didn't have to hide it. I don't know why it's so important to me that he doesn't want to admit to us being together but it is.'_

Pulling on the tight black and blue top, the short denim skirt and black leggings, she turned to gauge Vegeta's reaction, rolling her eyes as he reacted as he always did: staring at her intently as if he was trying to find something wrong so he wouldn't have to admit that he liked the way she looked.

A knock sounded at her door and Vegeta's stare was broken as he moved out of the visible line of sight her Mom would have when she opened the door.

"Oh Bulma, it looks better on you than on the model."

"Thanks Mom, I really love it. You have great taste as always."

"I knew it would be just perfect for your birthday gift. Oh I wish you'd invite your secret sweetheart over to spend time with you. I just know that he'd love it too. He probably wouldn't be able to take his eyes off you."

"Mom, please," Bulma huffed out, though she was giggling inside at the fact that Vegeta had liked it as much as her Mother said.

"Bulma, don't tell me you're still going to deny it. You're obviously head over heels for this guy so you really should just let us meet the man already."

Bulma stood stock still. "Mom, I don't know where you got that idea but you're so wrong."

Sighing, her Mother turned to leave, "Darling, the sooner you admit it to yourself, the better you'll feel about it. Now make sure that you tell Vegeta to wait until 1 for lunch. I'm making you a special meal for your birthday and it won't be ready 'til then."

Bulma, still numb from her Mother's words, slowly nodded her head. "Don't worry, Mom, I'll be sure to let him know."

Closing the door she stared at it, deep in thought. _'Mom really is being ridiculous. There's no way I'm in love with Vegeta so I'm sure that she was just looking into things too much like she always does.'_ The idea was really so wrong, so farfetched that it wasn't worth fretting so much over. Even if there was the remote possibility of falling in love with him she'd catch herself and set things right. After all, there wasn't any point to it, Vegeta wasn't planning on staying here for more than the few years it took to train for and defeat the androids and then to fight Goku. After that he probably would leave, getting as far away from the planet and the nonsensical people that inhabited it.

She jumped as she felt Vegeta's hand on her stomach and, thinking that he was trying to get her back into the mood, nearly hit him. However, one look at the serious, slightly angry expression on his face stopped the move before it started. "What? What is it?"

Vegeta's eyes snapped up to hers before he pulled his hand back to cross his arms over his chest. "Your Mother is completely insane."

"She's not insane, she's just a romantic. She's got this idea that I've found some guy that…,"

"Not that," he interrupted. "I'm talking about her thinking that you will be giving birth today."

Bulma's jaw dropped at that. "What? She doesn't think that…," she stopped as she realized something. "Vegeta, do you not know what a birthday is?" Vegeta stiffened and Bulma realized that he didn't and, obviously, had jumped to a completely inaccurate conclusion that a 'birthday' was the day one gave birth. "I'll take that as a no," she said as she bit back a chuckle. "On Earth we celebrate that a person is another year older on the day the person was born. It's another silly holiday we have to get together, eat food, and give gifts." Vegeta looked away muttering an insult about her people while desperately trying to compose himself from his embarrassment. "Besides, I already told you that I'm using birth control," she finished hoping that she completely placated him.

There was a long pause before he looked back at her, "You also said that you'd like to have a child," he stated, referring to what he'd overheard her and her mother talking about on Valentine's day.

"Well that what you get for eavesdropping on people, you get to learn about things you don't want to hear. But don't worry, I'm not using you to get with child, now is not the time. Maybe after everything is over I'll find someone to settle down with and start a family, but for now I'm just wanting some companionship and some fun," she finished with a wink. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go relax before it's time for lunch." She turned her back on him and opened the door only to have the knob ripped from her loose grasp as he slammed it shut, trapping her within the confines of his arms.

"Woman," Vegeta whispered in her ear in a way that she knew he was smirking, "I believe I told you that I came here to occupy myself until I can train again."

Bulma barely had enough time to register his words before she was tossed across the room towards the bed, his precision and restraint showing in the fact that she landed safely in the center. Another jolt shot through the bed and she looked up to see that Vegeta was now straddling her, a dark look and an amused smirk on his face.

'Like a cat with a mouse,' Bulma thought as a pleasurable shiver of anticipation ran through her body since the whole situation made Vegeta look every bit intimidating as he was seductive. He leant down to kiss her, planning on dragging it out as long as possible before he went in for the finish.

Every second they were together she found herself being drawn more and more to him, unable to understand why, refusing to accept the possibility._ 'I'm not in love with him. There was no possible way that could happen. I'd catch myself before I fall,' _she told herself again and again. Unfortunately for her she had no idea that she was already plummeting with no hopes of pulling herself back up.

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Shorter than normal, I know, but like I said it's part one of three. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to see some reviews.


	8. Birthday Girl

This is part 2 of 3 chapters focusing on the birthday theme.

Disclaimer: Dragonball and its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own these characters nor do I claim to.

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"Come on, Vegeta. I'm not asking you to cuddle with me, I just asking for you to stay for my birthday lunch." Bulma looked over at Vegeta, his previous good mood gone now that she was trying to get him to spend more time with her when her parents would be nearby. "It's not like you can use the GR to train and if you left the compound to train elsewhere you'll miss out when Dad finishes."

Vegeta was still leaning against the wall not saying anything, so she decided to finish getting dressed before pushing the subject anymore. _'Thankfully he held back enough to not ruin these clothes. I'd hate to have to explain that to Mom. How would I even be able to explain that one, it's not like she could tell her the truth.' _The thought of telling her Mom that Vegeta ripped her clothes to shreds in a fit of passion sent her into a fit of giggles.

"Who is going to be at this 'party' celebrating your birth?"

"It's not a party, it's just lunch. And there's little chance of there being anyone other than my parents there since everyone else is busy. It should be just like a normal lunch only with more food and probably a cake. Oh, and I'm sure Mom has more gifts for me to unwrap. She always buys too much for me while on trips and excuses herself by claiming that they're all for my birthday or for Christmas."

"Fine woman, but when your Father comes in and says that my GR is ready, don't try to distract me."

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it, my Prince," she giggled at the growl she got for that but ignored him and headed down stairs with him closely following her. Letting her thoughts wander, she wondered what exactly her Mother had planned hoping that she didn't go overboard.

"Woman," Vegeta's voice brought her back to the matter at hand.

She turned to look at him while continuing down the steps, "What is it, Vegeta?"

His answer wasn't needed as she felt her foot caught on a string that had been covertly set up on the bottom stair. Hearing a pop, both of them looked up in time to be showered with confetti and streamers.

At a flash of light, both of them looked back down to see Bunny with a camera smiling brilliantly. "Oh my, that party ball worked wonderfully. And I even got Mister Vegeta with it. You both look so festive," she commented with a giggle.

Bulma could care less about being covered with confetti or the fact that her Mother had just gotten a picture of the surely embarrassing scene. What mattered now was that the living room was decorated to the tee with bright streamers, balloons, ribbons and a larger banner sweeping across the wall with a bold '**Happy Birthday Princess**' written on it. A scene of wonder for a five year old girl dreaming of ponies and fairies; an absolutely mortifying scene for a 32 year old business woman who had just convinced her lover who didn't understand the concept of a birthday that nothing odd would be happening.

Looking back, Vegeta's completely flabbergasted look confirmed her fears that he was more than a little confused.

Her mother seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the two in front of her were far from happy about what was going on as she turned towards the kitchen. "You two go and sit down in the living room while I bring out lunch."

Bulma was still petrified to the spot but forced her hands to move up to her hair and shake out the excess paper covering it. _'Okay, maybe this isn't the best day to try and spend some time with Vegeta. I should have guessed that Mom would have done something like this from the get go. Maybe this evening after everything is cleaned up I'll try and coax Vegeta back in. Or better yet, maybe he'll pull another all nighter to catch up on his lost time. Yes, that's the best thing for now, after all I already had more than enough alone time with Vegeta this morning.'_

Nodding at her decision, she turned to address Vegeta about her thoughts. The words were caught in her throat as she noticed that he was using one hand to knock the confetti out of his hair while holding a box in his other, the words 'pin the tail on the donkey' clearly written on the package. Grabbing the box from his loose grasp, she quickly threw it into a closet, letting her body sag against it slightly. _'I haven't been down here five minutes and already I'm exhausted.'_

"Well, Woman," he paused waiting for her to look back up at him, "though I'm well aware that you're really an odd person I'm going to guess that this isn't your definition of a 'normal lunch' that you mentioned."

"No, this is nothing close to normal. All this," She gestured to the decorations and the games," is common for birthdays but for children, not someone my age." Sighing, she pushed herself off the door and moved over to him, "Look, I know that you don't want to be here. You've got more important things to do, training and such, so I won't mind if you want to leave, okay Vegeta?"

Any hopes that she'd get through this day without too much more embarrassment fled as he quickly became aware of her apprehension and gave her a trademark smirk that, despite the mortification she was feeling right now, made her weak in the knees. "The GR is still being fixed."

"Yes but I'm sure that you've found lots of places that are perfect for training that you've used every other time the GR was broken."

His smirk grew a little bit as he used her early words against her, "I could but if I leave the compound to train elsewhere I'll miss out when your Father finishes."

Bulma, not in any mood for his teasing, sharply remarked back, "Then I'll give you a cell phone and call you as soon as it's done so you really don't have to stay here."

"Nonsense, Bulma," her Mother's trilling voice cut through the thick tension of the atmosphere as she walked back in with a large platter, "This is a special day for you so the more the merrier, as they say. Besides I've made plenty of food and it would be bad for him to work on an empty stomach." Placing the platter down, she looked around the room. "Bulma did you put away the box that was here?"

"Yes I did, Mom, please tell me that you honestly didn't think that I'd want to play that?"

"Oh of course not, Princess," Bulma grimaced at the use of her old nickname, the feeling made worse by the fact that the man in the room with her was an actual prince, "I was just reminiscing about the past is all."

Bulma took in a deep breath trying not to snap from all the stress, "Mom, please tell me that you know that I'm 32 and not five and that these decorations are way too much."

"Oh, I know but I couldn't help myself. I put up one balloon and then another and when I found your old banner and I just had to put that up, it was so perfect," she sighed dreamily as she opened the closet and fixed the box that Bulma had carelessly through in.

Bulma felt like rubbing her temples but decided to let it go. After all, Vegeta had already seen the decorations so there was no harm in keeping them up. Sighing, she tried to cheer up and lighten the tense feeling throughout her body, "Fine, I'm okay with the decorations, though they are over the top, but at least you didn't honestly do it thinking that this is what I want. I mean, it's not like you hired a clown to come and entertain us."

"…," Bunny straightened back up and closed the door, "Of course not."

The stricken look returned to Bulma's face, "Mom, why did you pause before answering?" Her body was once again so tight that when the phone rang she jumped.

"Oh, I'll get that," Bunny said as she walked in the kitchen.

Bulma quickly ran over to the phone and listened to the conversation before sighing as she realized that it was only the bakery confirming that the cake her Mom had ordered was on the way. Hanging up the phone she went and sat down next to Vegeta, grabbing one of the elegantly made tea sandwiches her mother had prepared. After a minute or two of eating, Vegeta broke the silence.

"What's a clown and why does the thought of having one come here send you into a state of absolute horror?"

"A clown is someone that comes and entertains at parties, children's parties mind you. They dress badly, tell corny jokes, and do embarrassing things for the sole reason of making people laugh at them," she stated quickly, not wanting to go into too much detail. She hung her head and rubbed her temples trying to ease the migraine she felt coming on, looking up when she heard Vegeta chuckle.

"Having a bad day, Woman?" He was pretending to be concerned but his tone and smirk indicated that he was amused at everything he'd seen so far.

"What would you say if I said that I wanted to back upstairs and continue this morning's activities instead of having my birthday party?"

"I'd say that you won't be able to sleep tonight due to the exhaustion induced sleep you'd have the rest of the day."

"Oh please, like you'd be able to tire me out that much?"

Vegeta leaned in close to her, "I'd be more than happy to prove that I can if you really want to find out," the dark, confident look that had trapped her earlier returning to his eyes.

"Well then, maybe that's what I want," she carefully rubbed her leg against his, "some quality bonding time instead of all this hullabaloo."

Vegeta suddenly stiffened and Bulma wondered if she'd said something to upset him. Before she could ask though he moved away and serious look replaced his warm one, "Looks like your Mother did invite a clown."

Bulma's jaw dropped. "What?" _'Surely he's mistaken; he can't tell that from here, not without seeing anything.'_

Vegeta nodded before tilting his head towards the door. "He's coming up to the door right now."

Bulma jumped a little as a knock was heard at the door. _'Oh my gosh, it can't be. Surely Mom isn't that deluded about what's proper for someone my age.' _Standing up, she moved to the door already planning on a multitude of ways to tell the entertainer that his business was not needed.

Bracing herself for the worst, she turned the knob and opened the door… only to see the familiar face of her ex-boyfriend. "Yamcha, what are you doing here? I thought you were training in the wilderness." Bulma, though happy to see her old friend, had to force a smile on her face. Quickly looking back at smirk on Vegeta's face she remembered that she'd have to more specific when describing the term clown in order to prevent another misunderstanding.

'_Then again,'_ Bulma thought to herself as she turned back to her old friend, remembering his corny jokes, his tendency to do stupid things that made you laugh at him, and his bad sense of fashion,_ 'maybe Vegeta has a point though I'm sure he just said it to be mean. Ten to one he'll use the term clown to insult Goku next time they fight.' _

Yamcha reached out and gave her a big hug before pulling back. "You know I wouldn't miss out on your special day, B," he answered with his classic goofy grin that had made her swoon in her teenage years. As an adult however, it didn't really do all that much other than warm her heart at the thought of her wonderful friends. Now it was a dangerous, confident half smile of Vegeta's that made her swoon.

Her train of thought making a real smile appear on her face she opened the door wider. "Well, come on in. Mom went a little overboard on the decorations so no teasing." As Yamcha passed her and made his way into the living room, she noticed that Vegeta's smirk was gone and his cold attitude had returned, mostly due to the fact that he, for several reasons, really didn't like Yamcha.

'_Forget 32, I'll be lucky if I don't age 20 years by the time this day is over.'_

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to see some reviews.


	9. The Perfect Gift

**Disclaimer:** Dragonball Z and its character belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own them nor do I claim to.

**A/N**: Takes place after Birthday Girl. This will be the last part of the Birthday theme. Hopefully the three work well together.

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"Wow, you weren't kidding, Bulma. Your Mom really went all out with the decorations."

"Yamcha, please don't feel like you have to pretend to like the stuff Mom put up. You're not going to hurt her feelings."

"I'm not pretending, I really think it's great," Yamcha finally turned away from the decorations on the wall to smile at her. A few seconds of silence passed between his polite smile and her look of disbelief before he finally broke it. "Okay, it's a little silly." He chuckled a bit and Bulma couldn't help but join in relieved that he was just joking.

"I told you not to tease me like that, Yamcha. For a second I thought that you were serious about it being nice. I mean, it's embarrassing for Mom to do this though I've grown to expect it from her but you're sane enough to know that this kind of stuff isn't fit for anyone above the age of 10."

Yamcha frowned at that and scratched the back of his head. "Really? That's weird. I recall bringing you a lot of balloons and party stuff for your 17th birthday and you seemed to love it."

Bulma blushed and looked at Vegeta out of the corner of her eye. "Th-that doesn't count," she blurted out, purposely ignoring his confused look as the memory rushed back.

Bulma had met with Goku during her summer vacation as she went searching for the dragonballs and by the end of their trip she had met and got together with Yamcha. He gave up his life as a desert bandit and came to live with her in the city. There he quickly became the number one heartthrob for all the girls and despite her telling them that he was in a relationship with her they wouldn't back off. She told him to make them stop but he didn't want to offend anyone. She hated the idea that he was willing to have those bimbos hang all over him while he was with her but she tried her best to ignore it. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the girls continued to vie for his attention.

However one day she found that she couldn't get a hold of him. She tried to contact the house all day while she was at school but he never picked up. All she could think of was that he was off cheating on her with some girl. But to her surprise when she had gotten home and opened the door to her room she was met with a wall of bright colors and odd shapes.

Now it was obvious that a 17 year old girl, a teenager that was quickly becoming an adult at that, wouldn't want to come home to the overly childish decorations and swarm of colorful balloons filling her room, but Yamcha was right. She had loved it, but not for the reason he seemed to believe. She had been so worried about the relationship with her first boyfriend that she had completely forgotten her own birthday. And while she had been so convinced that he was busy with another woman, he had actually been busy decorating her room. It had been so wonderful, celebrating her birthday for the first time with her boyfriend that she felt that she could look beyond the embarrassing décor just that once. It had been a wonderful gift and it made her realize how much she loved him despite his bad points.

'_Yes, I remember it so clearly now,'_ Bulma thought with a small smile. _'I was so naïve, but what teenager wasn't when their first love was involved.'_ This was another prime example of why she and Yamcha broke apart. He lost part of his maturity when he gave up his life in the desert while she had gotten more mature, becoming more worried about how to run her Father's company and less about running around the world wishing for childish things.

"Hmph," Bulma stiffened as she heard Vegeta scoff from his seat on the couch behind her, "some taste you had back then, Woman, to enjoy such a garish show," the distaste and harsh words affecting her twice as much since she hadn't received them. The words _'Don't expect anything as foolish from me'_ didn't have to be said aloud.

Bulma turned to look at him, to try and see how he was feeling, but he was looking away from her, his head resting on his hand with his elbow propped up against the couch. She wanted to defend herself but Yamcha, unfortunately, beat her to it, the insult clearly making him lose his joyful attitude.

"As if you have any right to comment, Vegeta, you'd never be able to get a steady girl as good as Bulma to want to celebrate being together."

That comment got Vegeta's attention and he snapped his eyes to Yamcha's, a sneer already on his face, "Are you implying that I'd never be able to keep a woman, clown?"

Yamcha shrugged but kept the eye contact. "I've certainly never seen you do anything besides training like a maniac. Either you're not getting any action at all or you only settle for one night stands with cheap women," he finished, bracing himself for the inevitable attack.

However to Yamcha's surprise the attack never did come. Instead Vegeta let out a cruel, mocking laugh confusing Yamcha further.

Bulma let out a sigh. _'Oh Yamcha, if only you knew that not only was Vegeta in a steady relationship, it's with the very person you said he'd never have an equal to.' _Sure she was flattered by Yamcha's defense that a steady relationship with her was better than several one night with no responsibility but it was very hypocritical considering their past.

"What are you laughing at?"

Vegeta's chuckles died down and he gave Yamcha a smug look. "I don't need to hear that kind of speech from the very fool that left this Woman," he said cruelly as he noticed Yamcha flinch. "Besides, you've been gone for quite a while. Who knows what has happened while you weren't here to keep watch."

Yamcha's confused face started to pale as he was unable to figure out exactly what Vegeta was suggesting. "What do you mean? What have you done?"

Vegeta tilted his head slighty, his smirk never leaving his face before he closed his eyes and returned Yamcha's earlier shrug, "I don't have to explain anything to the likes of you."

That response didn't sit well with Yamcha but before he could demand an answer, Bulma cut in. "Enough. I don't want you two taunting each other today. If you can't keep your testosterone out of your conversation, then leave. I'm not dealing with it today."

Yamcha let out a tense breath, "You're right, Bulma, I'm sorry." Vegeta just scoffed again and return to his bored observation of the other side of the room.

"Yamcha, why don't you go say hi to Mom. I'm sure she'd love to see you." Glad when Yamcha agreed and left for the kitchen, Bulma let out a tired sigh before moving to sit on the couch next to Vegeta. "What was that about?" When she didn't get any answer, she pushed on. "I thought that you didn't want anyone to know about us."

"I don't," he simply answered without looking at her.

"Then why," he cut her off by looking at her.

"I was just messing with him, Woman. Anyway it doesn't matter. What's between us is between us and no one else and it will stay that way until I say otherwise, understand?"

Bulma hated the look in Vegeta's eyes. Even when alone it seemed that Vegeta was determined not to show his true feelings towards her. _'I understand that Vegeta has had a hard life and that he's not used to how things work here but this is getting ridiculous. If he thinks he can control me like this he's got another thing coming.'_ She knew that their relationship was fragile and that the slightest thing might push Vegeta away but she was Bulma Briefs and she wasn't about to be told what to do without a better reason than 'because I say so'.

"You want to keep it a secret? Fine. But that also means that you don't have the right to complain about Yamcha hanging out with me today," she said while getting up and moving to the other couch while ignoring his narrowed eyes.

"What are you going on about?"

"You like to hear the reasons behind Earth's Customs but it seems that you need to learn about how relationships work as well. For example: Unless someone is sitting by their significant other or their family they would rather sit with friends than with strangers. And since I've known Yamcha for pretty much half my life and you've only been living here" she gave him her own smug smirk even as he growled at her.

"He doesn't have to sit next to you. Tell him to sit elsewhere," Vegeta's angry black eyes locked onto her mischievous blue ones.

"For what reason? I don't have any problem with him sitting here. After all, we've been broken up for awhile and there are no lingering feelings between us."

He rolled his eyes at that, "Yes that's why he came all the way here from halfway across the world to celebrate the day of your birth. That's why he held you so close when he came in calling you by your old 'pet' name."

'_Ah so that's what set him off so quickly when Yamcha got here.'_ Bulma had noticed it before when Vegeta had gone from making fun of Yamcha to his cold 'I hate everyone' attitude. "Vegeta, that's just the way we are on Earth. We go out of our way to visit friends, we greet each other by hugging, and we have special names that we call each other. It'd be the same if it was Krillen or Chichi or Goku."

The sound of the armrest frame cracking beneath his tightly clenched fingers was almost inaudible compared to his low growl. "Don't say his name!" he snapped barely keeping his rage low enough that Yamcha and her Mom couldn't hear it. "He of all people shouldn't be touching you like that. I'll rip his throat out if he does."

'_Probably not the best idea to use Goku as a part of that example, but it does help make my point,' Bulma_ thought calmly. "But why? He doesn't know that we're together so attacking him would be odd, wouldn't it?"

"As if I need a reason to attack Kakarot."

Shrugging, Bulma leant back against the couch. "Perhaps, you do go on about how much you hate him after all. However, it does bring up the question of' why then?' Why after being around Goku for so long would you suddenly attack him just because he hugged me?"

Vegeta crossed his arms defensively and Bulma knew it was because he realized she was right. "It absolutely amazes me that your race is perfectly fine with everyone interacting so casually with their women," he said while looking away.

"Bull crap, Vegeta." Bulma noticed that Vegeta's body stiffened at her words. "This has nothing to do with our planet's customs. It has to do with the fact that you're being completely impractical. I may not have met anyone from another planet that wasn't asexual but surely relationships everywhere have some similar traits. You can't just expect people to stay away from someone without having a reason why. If I go to a bar with friends men are going to come up and try to get to know me since I'm not wearing any symbol that says I'm taken. Sure I can tell them that I'm not interested but since I can't tell them that I'm in a relationship there's little reason for them to not try and change my mind. Either I'm in a relationship and I'm off limits or I'm not and people are free to get close. It's one or the other, Vegeta, you can't have it both ways."

Her speech done she waited to see his reaction. Perhaps he would throw a fit; perhaps he would storm out of the room. After a few painfully quiet seconds as Vegeta seemed to be contemplating her words, they were interrupted by her Mother's humming as she entered the room with a large pastel pink cake.

"Here we are, Princess, I ordered it from your favorite bakery. Isn't it just lovely?"

Now that the cake was being seen from above she saw that it wasn't as bad as she had first thought. It was decorated with perfectly piped flowers of various varieties with lit '2' and '3' candles placed in the middle. _'It really was a nice cake. Well, it was from my favorite shop after all so even if Mom had ordered something completely embarrassing they would have known what I would prefer,'_ she smiled, pleased with the level of work. "Thanks Mom, it's gorgeous."

"It's a wonderful cake, Mrs. Briefs," Yamcha said as he plopped down on the couch next to Bulma. Bulma looked over at Vegeta quickly to see his reaction. He was still looking off to the side but his eyes were focused intently on her, or rather Yamcha's proximity to her. "Now blow out the candles and make a wish," he said with a smile, completely oblivious to Vegeta's glare.

"Oh my, what a look," Bulma and Yamcha both looked over at Bunny at her comment. "Is something wrong, Vegeta?" Bulma resisted the urge to look at Vegeta, knowing that he'd be uncomfortable enough being caught by her Mother and now having Yamcha's attention.

"I was just thinking about how odd it is to put lights on something you're going to eat."

"Huh? You've never heard of birthday candles, Vegeta?" Yamcha asked, clearly not thinking about how different things are for someone that has only been on Earth for a year.

"Yamcha, Vegeta's not from Earth. He'd never even heard of celebrating birthdays before today."

Bunny put a hand over her mouth. "Wow, we'll have to make sure that we throw a big party on your birthday, sweetie." Bulma held in a giggle at Vegeta's flinch before deciding to explain.

"It's really a custom that we follow without much reason behind it, Vegeta. We make a silent wish and blow out the candles. It's another one of those fun things that we do just because we want to."

"So it's as bizarre and inane as everything else your race does."

Yamcha, tired of Vegeta's attitude, nudged Bulma's leg. "Don't listen to him, Bulma, just have fun and make a wish." Unlike Yamcha, Bulma noticed that Vegeta's eyes instantly went to where the back of Yamcha's hand was touching her leg a second longer than he deemed necessary.

Bulma kept her eyes on Vegeta for a second longer before turning to the cake. While in the past she had easily made her wishes usually for something that she could either buy or make herself, but this year she couldn't get past her earlier conversation with Vegeta. _'I know what I really want but I don't think the dragonballs would be able to help me with that.' _Sadly, she closed her eyes. She couldn't think of anything else so she went ahead and made her wish before pursing her lips and blowing out the candles.

"I hope your wish comes true, sweetie. Well you three talk for a bit while I go cut the cake," and with that, Mrs. Briefs picked up the cake and went back into the kitchen.

"Thanks, Mom," Bulma said, while forcing a smile on her face_. 'I'm not going to linger on something so silly. I'm not even in love with Vegeta and Kami only knows how long until he'll get bored of me.'_

"So, what'd you wish for, B?"

She blushed realizing that she'd drifted off. "It's a secret. You know that if you tell what the wish is that it won't come true."

"Oh, come on. How can I not ask when you're blushing so much," Yamcha pointed out. "Does it have to do with your 'mystery boyfriend'? Your Mom said that you're pretty crazy over him but I see that he didn't bother to come."

'_Oh Yamcha, if only you knew,'_ she thought while biting her lip to stop herself from laughing."You know better than to believe everything Mom says, Yamcha."

"Maybe but you're not exactly denying it. And your blush isn't helping. Come on, tell," he teased, playfully smacking her on the leg a little harder than he intended.

"Ow! Yamcha that hurt!" Bulma cringed. There wasn't enough pain to indicate that anything was broken but she knew that it would probably bruise.

Yamcha's cheery mood instantly sobered at that. "I'm so sorry, Bulma. I'm not used to holding back after training so long."

Bulma stiffened as Yamcha placed his hand on the bruised area, gently massaging the tender skin. Not because it was sore but because she knew that it wouldn't end well for Yamcha. He fears were proven right as they heard a loud growl, barely giving Yamcha enough time to brace himself before Vegeta knocked him across the room and held him against the wall. Bulma quickly got up and grabbed Vegeta's arm.

"Vegeta, stop it. You have no right to attack Yamcha like this!" She yelled desperately, surprised when Vegeta turned to look at her.

"Like hell I don't! You're mine, Woman, and I don't want him touching you like that. It's bad enough that he lacks the control needed to not hurt you but to also think that it's okay to touch it like that. It's completely indecent and I won't stand for it!"

Silence filled the room as all the occupants tried to take in what had just happened. Yamcha, still being held against the wall, was floored by the fact that Bulma and Vegeta were a couple. Vegeta, panting at the intensity of his tirade, was appalled that he had lost control of his emotions and admitted to something he had been determined to keep secret. And Bulma, staring wide-eyed at Vegeta, was overwhelmed by the fact that her wish had come true; that Vegeta had just admitted that they were together in public. Thankfully the silence was broken when Mrs. Briefs, who had moved to the doorway to see what was going on, dropped the plate she was holding.

"Oh I just knew it! I knew that there was something between you two. After all, you went through all that trouble to make Valentine's chocolates but didn't leave the house to give them to anyone so I knew that you had given them to Mr. Vegeta. Oh, you're so perfect together."

"You…you made him Valentine's chocolates? You?" Yamcha stuttered out in complete shock of what his former girlfriend had done in one year of living with Vegeta that she never did in 15 years with him.

Vegeta turned back towards him, a smirk now on his face. "She's done more than make me chocolates. Not bad for someone that can't keep a steady woman, don't you think?" he said purposely acting smug to cover up his mortification. "Now I didn't want to go about talking about my personal business but the Woman informed me that if it's not painfully obvious that she's taken idiots like you will take liberties."

"You can't even call her by her name. How am I supposed to believe that you actually have feelings for her?" Yamcha asked while trying to get out of Vegeta hold.

"Whether or not I have feelings for her is not any of your business. As I said before, what happens between us is private and doesn't need to be told to everyone. You, however, are an exception because I can't control the company she has and you seem to have no sense of personal boundaries," he finished by tightening his grip as if to accentuate his point, his glare matching Yamcha's in its intensity.

"What's going on in here?" Bulma looked over to see her Father, clipboard in hand and cat on his shoulder, walk in.

"Um…," Bulma tried to explain but didn't know where to start.

"Bulma and Vegeta just admitted that they're in love. Vegeta is upset that Yamcha was making a move on his woman so he's defending his honor. Isn't it great, dear?"

"Mom! This isn't a soap opera," Bulma protested. Never mind the fact that Vegeta is being overly dramatic.

"It may as well be for all the tense drama and startling admissions," she stated joyfully.

Not wanting anymore of her Mom's comparisons of her life to TV, Bulma moved across the room and pushed her Mom back into the kitchen. "Let me help you cut that cake, Mom."

No longer in the room Bulma could barely make out her Father telling Vegeta that the GR was ready and the gasp of air she assumed was Yamcha as Vegeta let go of his neck. The last she heard from Vegeta was him walking out the door while muttering something to Yamcha. She knew that she should check and see if Yamcha was okay but forced herself to stay put knowing that her happiness at Vegeta's words would finally break through.

"Well now, Bulma," her Father said as he and Yamcha, who was rubbing his neck with a frown on his face, came into the kitchen, "it sounds like your birthday has been interesting."

Unable to hold it back any longer, Bulma let out a small laugh. "Trust me, Dad, interesting doesn't begin to explain it."

Bulma grimaced as she checked out the silky lingerie her Mother had given her. Sure it looked fine and fit her perfectly but it was a lot more revealing than anything she'd worn around Vegeta yet and she wasn't too sure what his tastes were. _'I wonder if something like this is just considered indecent to him.'_

Sighing she moved towards the window, opening it to lean out. Looking over the right side she was surprised to see that the lights were off in the GR. _'That's odd. I figured that he'd be training through the night what with being denied the GR for half the day and having to deal with Yamcha's closeness.' _She chuckled at that thought. Vegeta's threshold of patience had been crossed and redefined several times that day since he refused to leave her alone in Yamcha's company but it seemed that in the end he was as satisfied with admitting to their relationship as she was in that he was able to make his point about what was unacceptable to him without having to watch over Yamcha like a hawk.

Bulma's laughter instantly stopped as she heard the low rumble behind her. Turning around she saw Vegeta standing behind her with a towel wrapped around his neck_. 'Wow, he actually used the door this time.'_ Noticing him checking out her new underwear with a frown on his face, she sighed. "I knew you wouldn't like it."

"I don't dislike it, Woman; I dislike the fact that you're wearing it in front of the window where everyone can see you."

She rolled her eyes at that, _'Some things never change.' _Moving back inside the room, she walked up to him. "So, what are you doing inside so early?"

Vegeta looked off to the side, blatantly ignoring her question. After a few seconds he finally asked, "What did you wish for?"

'_Sorry, Vegeta, that's a secret.'_ Knowing full well that telling him that her wish already came true would send him into a fit about somehow being controlled by the candles. "That a certain someone will be gentle with me until this bruise goes away."

He looked over at her, with an upset frown obviously not buying her answer. "Woman, you made the wish before the idiot hit you."

"Well I'm changing it. It may have been an accident but it does hurt. So what do you say? Think you can be careful and play without throwing me through the air?"

Bulma's smile nearly disappeared at the sight of Vegeta's playful look, seemingly unhindered by her taunt. "Trust me, Woman, my level of control is far superior to his. Trust me that, of everything that I make you feel tonight, the pain will be the last thing on your mind," he finished his promise by pulling her close to him, the look in his eyes making her shiver with anticipation.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Bulma smiled and placed her hands on his face pulling him in for a deep, slow kiss. She watched as he eyes showed how confused he was at her forwardness given that he had just 'threatened' her but slowly his eyes closed and he returned the kiss.

It had indeed been a full day for Bulma. Much like how Vegeta had refused let anyone know about their relationship but in the end was happy to see that it did have its advantages, Bulma had started off the day fully believing that her Mom was off her rocker about her being in love with Vegeta but now realized that she had fallen in love with him more than she ever thought possible. Sure it was foolish, after all he was training to defeat Goku after the android were dealt with, and she knew that he had no intents to stay here after that was taken care of. There was little chance of him ever returning her feelings but for now it was okay.

'_Right now, it's perfect and I wouldn't trade this feeling for anything in the world.'_

_

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_End of the birthday chapter. I hope it came out nicely. Please feel free to review if you want, I love to hear the feedback. _  
_


	10. Fashionista

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own these characters nor do I claim to.

A/N: Takes place after Perfect Gift. Before anyone asks, I'm not doing the whole biting the neck mating mark thing. It's fine for other fics but I'm going to be avoiding it for this one. 

* * *

"No. No. Definitely not," Bulma stepped back from the pile of clothes on her bed with a sigh. "Come on, girl, surely you have one swimsuit that Vegeta would like."

It was the end of May, a little more than a month after her birthday and that meant that it would soon be summer. Summer was always a great season. Swimming, the beach, fireworks, and festivals: Summer had it all. Right now the weather was perfect for swimming. There was one major problem though: Bulma couldn't find the perfect swimsuit. She had plenty of great ones, just none that would get by Vegeta without comment.

In the past when she was with Yamcha she had worn several bikinis, always tastefully sexy of course. Yamcha had loved her bikinis, though he loved all bikinis… on all women. Even when they were broken up and there was no one to impress she still wore the two piece suits, a force of habit but she also enjoyed looking sexy just in case someone hot just happened to be looking.

However if last summer was any indication, she couldn't just throw on any swimsuit and expect Vegeta to be happy with the look.

"Well that's not entirely true," she said out loud with a smirk. "Vegeta can complain all he wants but it doesn't change the fact that he enjoyed the view."

Like it he might but he was very possessive and, unlike Yamcha, didn't want others to see the view. He could possibly let it slide when she was swimming in the privacy of her fenced-in yard but she would have to avoid going to be beach unless she found something that he approved of. It was a little annoying, being that she was a strong, prideful woman but she understood that he had given up a lot with admitting to their relationship to her parents and Yamcha so the least she could was give him a little bit back. Then again she wasn't about to go around wearing a pants and long sleeve shirts all summer just to appease him.

Looking again at the bed, she sighed and picked up the phone. It was time to call in a professional.

* * *

"Bulma, darling, you've always been hard to please, a good trait when it comes to fashion, but now you're just being impossible," Bulma's stylist said in a huff as she threw down her scissors. "Your body is perfect for this style of swimsuit and you'll easily make the top of the fashion world with it. That's always been important to you."

"I've told you, Sera, things are different now."

"Yes yes, you've got a new man that doesn't like others looking at your body. If you ask me that's a danger sign. No man is worth the trouble or your freedom."

Bulma laughed at that. Everything about Vegeta was definitely a danger sign but not for the reasons Sera was thinking. "I have plenty of freedom, Sera. And trust me, he's worth the trouble."

Bulma knew that it had to be confusing for Sera to understand how one man could drastically change everything she used to stand for. After all, Sera had been designing for her for years and had often been on the losing side of her unchangeable mind. Bulma always knew what she wanted and always got it. Even when she had been with Yamcha for years Bulma still picked her style based on her wants without any concern for what he would think, though he had been pretty easy to please. Now the opinion of Vegeta, who she'd only know in peaceful settings for a little over a year and been seeing for less than a few months, seemed to be more important than her former personal preference.

"Look Sera, I still want the look to be fashionable. It's not like I want a wetsuit, just something that isn't completely revealing."

Sera shook her head and pulled out a pad of paper and started sketching. "Do you want a bikini at all?"

Bulma tilted her head to the side as she thought about it._ 'I'd like a bikini but what exactly is it that Vegeta has a problem with. He might think that a wetsuit would be too revealing being skin tight and all.' _She frowned as she thought about it._ 'He'd probably prefer me in a parka.'_

A light thud brought Bulma's attention back to Sera who had dropped her pencil from her loose grasp as she stared at the doorway with her jaw slack. Bulma didn't have to look to know that Vegeta had just walked in to have lunch. Turning to confirm her thoughts, she narrowed her eyes as she saw him stretching in the doorway, his muscled physique covered only with his workout shorts being the obvious cause of Sera's stupor.

"Lunch is still cooking, Vegeta, but it should be done by the time you take a shower."

Vegeta finished stretching out his sore muscle before turning to look over at Bulma, barely giving Sera a passing glance before walking past them and up the stairs to his room.

Bulma frowned but looked back over at Sera as she heard the frantic scribbling. "Hey, I haven't answered your question yet. What are you doing?"

"Giving the man what he wants," Sera answered without looking up frown her paper. "You were right. He's worth every bit of trouble," she finished, suddenly breathless.

"I'll be right back," Bulma said as she stood and followed after Vegeta. Once she reached his room, she walked in and closed the door behind her. She couldn't hear the water running but he was obviously in the bathroom. "You're a complete asshole, you know that?" It was stupid to get so angry about this but she refused to sit back and let him do everything he wanted when he put such restrictions on her.

"Do you actually have a problem or do you just want to be redundant?" Vegeta's muffled answer came through the bathroom door.

"Yes I actually have a problem: You! Walking around in your tiny shorts and that stretching you did back there; it's enough to drive any woman insane."

The door suddenly swung open startling Bulma. She jumped back but when she noticed that he was now naked she looked back up at his smug face.

"Aw, too much for you, Woman? Unfortunately I don't have time to help your little problem right now. After I eat, I have to get right back to training. You'll have to wait patiently until tonight."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Bulma furiously answered with a bright blush indicating not only her anger but also her embarrassment. "You always go around complaining about my choice of dress so I thought about your concerns when getting my new summer wardrobe designed but that's completely unfair if you don't return the favor."

Vegeta's smug mood was replaced but a confused frown. "I don't recall you ever expressing distaste with my clothes before, Woman, so how was I supposed to know it was a problem?"

"It just is. I don't mind what you have to wear to train in but to walk through the house while company is over is another story."

"I've walked through dressed like that when your had people before and you've never complained this much."

"That was male company. Your little show back there nearly had Sera panting."

Crossing his arms, Vegeta shrugged his shoulders. "So what? It's not like I was going to invite her to do anything."

"And I am? Is that why you don't want me dressing up, because you think I'll invite men to have their way with me? I didn't realize how little trust you have in me," she bit her lip, trying to not to cry over something so stupid.

She couldn't see him but she could practically hear him roll his eyes. "Weren't you the one drooling over Zarbon back on Namek?" Bulma tried to look away, not wanting that to be the deciding factor for what deems her worthy of trust. "I'm not going to use that against you. That idiot wasn't worth keeping your attention on him anyway. I trust that you're not going to run off with the first male that looks at you but I can't say the same thing about the male keeping his distance. You claim that they'll stay back if you say you're in a relationship but that doesn't stop them from looking and getting ideas."

Bulma sighed, "And it's not the same for women? You don't think that they won't get ideas the more they look at you?"

He chuckled at that, "I highly doubt they'd be able to take advantage of me, Woman, but thanks for the concern." He laughed again as her previous sadness was replaced by her anger again. "And I know what you meant, Woman, but there's a difference between walking through your own residence and going out into public."

"Excuse me but I clearly recall you freaking out when you saw me swimming in my private pool last year," Bulma stated with her hands on her hips.

It was Vegeta's turn to look away this time so Bulma decided to try and seek an agreement. "Look, as I said I'm getting a new wardrobe for the summer and wanted you input. Now, I'm not going to dress all dowdy but you're free to make some suggestions, if they fall in line with my high standards of course."

"I don't know anything about the crazy way you dress, Woman."

"No but you can tell me what you absolutely can't stand. For example, I prefer to wear bikinis, two piece swimsuits that don't cover the stomach but I could have one made that didn't expose my skin as much."

There was a long pause but Bulma waited knowing that he was thinking hard about it. "Your legs… and your hips."

_'Hmm, looks like he's more worried about my bottom than my top and middle.'_ "Well, I can't have my legs covered completely since I have to be able to swim in it but I could have a matching wrap that would cover my thighs," She motioned to also indicate that her hips and rear would also be more covered. "Anything else?"

Another long pause occurred but he didn't seem to want to add anything so Bulma decided to leave him to his shower. However upon taking a step she heard him mumble so she looked back.

"What?"

He looked away again and Bulma could clearly make out the unmistakable blush on his face. "Your neck."

Bulma was confused. Most people would have been worried about her stomach or breasts showing but her neck? _'Perhaps it's something intimate for Sayians. He does tend to nuzzle my neck when he's in the mood. The neck is one of the places we put perfume on so maybe my scent is stronger there. Not that that would mean anything to a human man but if it bothers him, I'll fix it. I'm sure a thick halter top would be able to cover it enough,' _she thought with a smile before giving him a light kiss and moving towards the door to finally give him some privacy. "Alright, Vegeta, I'll keep your concerns in mind. Go ahead and shower and I'll have your lunch out of the oven and ready when you come down," she turned back to look at him, "_dressed_ for company."

Vegeta rolled his eyes again and closed the door. Bulma grinned and quickly made her way back downstairs. She'd have to hurry before Sera designed a new line of summer snow wear.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Sorry this chapter took so long but I've been busy with College and ficwise I've been working on a larger challenge at the LJ community. It was a Halloween Challenge but due to technical difficulties the mod had (which I think we can all understand) it got delayed quite a bit. Once it's done I'll post that here. Once again thanks and I'd love to hear from you. I'm very flattered that I've gotten so many reviews and it's nice to see all the people who have faved this story so thanks for those as well.


	11. Change of Plans

"Ah they say money doesn't buy happiness but it sure does take the trouble out of getting an entire stylish wardrobe done quickly and that's enough for me. Oh, I don't know where to start."

Bulma grinned as she examined the multiple bags and boxes laid out on her bed. She had been in the middle of an important project but when her Mother called her office to say that her new clothes had arrived she suddenly decided that it was well past time for a break, never mind the fact that she'd only been working for two hours.

After sorting through her new summer dresses, shorts, t-shirts, and clubbing clothes she finally came across her new swimwear. "Wow, they're even more beautiful than on paper," she said with delight as she ran her hand over the soft fabric. After working and re-working the designs, Sera had made several pieces in different styles in varying colors that complemented Bulma perfectly.

"I really want to go swimming now." She bit her lip as she looked at the clothes before her. She knew that her project needed to be done within the week but pink florals of the criss-cross halter bikini with the matching wrap skirt were calling to her. "The project can wait another day. The day's too nice to waste working inside."

Excitedly, she stripped off her lab clothes and took down her hair from its tight bun letting the wavy strands fall about her shoulders. She pulled on her new pink bikini choosing to leave the wrap off for the moment as she went to examine herself in the mirror. "Of course it's a perfect fit; I'd expect nothing less from Sera. And the Halter neck is wonderful! I thought it would be uncomfortable being so high up on the neck but I can barely tell it there." Reaching over, she grabbed the wrap which set comfortably over her hips the shorter side ending mid thigh while the longer side stopped mid calf. "Wow, I look like some kind of exotic island goddess. Who knew Vegeta's strange standards could yield such fashionable results."

With a smile, she gave herself a twirl in from of the mirror before heading downstairs, grabbing a beach towel from the linen closet on the way. Even before she reached the kitchen she could hear her Mother's cheerful humming. Her Mother was busy preparing for dinner when she entered. Looking around to see what, other than the massive amounts of sandwiches, there was to eat, her eyes landed on a couple of large watermelons. "Hey, Mom, is it okay if I slice one of these up?"

"Of course, Sweetie. Oh my, Bulma, that looks amazing!"

At her mother's compliment, Bulma smiled smugly and gave another twirl to show off the entire look. "I'm glad you like it, Mom. I was going to go swimming so I thought it'd be a great time to break it in."

Bunny placed a finger against her mouth as if in thought, "Isn't that a more beach look though?"

At that comment Bulma's mood brightened more. "Mom, that's a great idea! A trip to the beach sounds so good." The closest beach was only a half hour drive out of town so she'd be able to enjoy plenty of sun, sand, and swimming before it was dark. "Oh, I haven't seen a summer sunset in ages. I'm going to go pack right now."

"Why don't you take Vegeta with you, Bulma, I'm sure he'd enjoy it."

Bulma laughed at her Mother's naive suggestion. "Mom, Vegeta's busy with training. Long life goal of becoming the legendary Super Sayian and preparing for the dangerous threat to the planet, remember."

"He wasn't training earlier."

Bulma looked confused at that. "He's taking a break? That's weird."

"Well I don't know if you'd call it a break. Shortly after I called to tell you that your clothes arrived he came through in heading for the lab then went back outside with your Father in tow."

Sighing, Bulma rubbed her temples. "That man, I swear. I tell him again and again that he can't push the machine to its max and expect it not to break down more often. And what does he do? He pushes it to the max until it breaks down and then comes and yells at us that we did something wrong. He's so infuriating!"

"I'm sure he more than makes up for it when you two have your alone time," Bunny said, completely ignoring the bright blush on her daughter's face.

"Mom! I can't believe you just said that!" She screamed in embarrassment before covering her face._ 'As if Vegeta's talent in bed excuses his rudeness during the day.'_

"I'm sorry, Sweetie, it's just that I've been so happy that you two admitted to your relationship. You two lovebirds are just perfect for each other and I know that you'll have such lovely grandkids for me."

"Mom, please don't," before she could finish her plea, the muffled sound of an explosion and shaking windows distracted her. Looking outside, she could clearly see a billowing cloud of black smoke come into view. The panic froze her body only for a second before she ran outside in the direction of the GR. She was definitely worried about her Father but even knowing that Vegeta would be able to survive an explosion she couldn't help worrying about him too. It scared her to think that he'd be hurt again. _'Please, please be okay.'_

She rounded the corner and couldn't begin to explain the relief that filled her when she saw Vegeta staring at the smoking GR with his usual annoyed scowl firmly set in place. Her Father was coughing violently next to him, his body being held off the ground solely by Vegeta's firm grip on his lab coat. Knowing that they were safe she slowed her pace down to a jog and as she got close Vegeta turned his eyes from the GR to her. Despite the situation she couldn't help but enjoy Vegeta taking in her appearance.

Finally reaching them she knelt down to her Father. "Dad, are you okay?"

He coughed a few more times before looking up at her, his glasses darkened by the smoke enough that she couldn't see his eyes. "Yes, I'm okay. Luckily Vegeta reacted fast enough to get us both out before either of us were hurt." Standing up, he dusted himself off and straightened his coat pulling it from Vegeta's grasp. "Vegeta came to get me because the computer was acting up and when I opened the panel it turned out that one of the circuit boards had gotten dislodged and fell onto the power source and melted the casing making it unstable." Looking over at Vegeta, he added. "Luckily we have a back-up computer in the lab so I'll be able to fix everything by tonight," finishing his statement as he took off his glasses to clean them.

Vegeta didn't seem to share her Father's positive view on the time frame. "Why is it every time this thing breaks it takes twice as long it should to be fixed?"

"It wouldn't need to be fixed nearly as much if you didn't constantly push it too hard. Not to mention that the only thing that could have dislodged the circuit boards would have been from you hitting it."

"How the hell am I supposed to avoid hitting it? It's in the middle of the room."

"Of course it's in the middle of the room! It's the main power source and structure for the ship."

Her Father, used to these exchanges, calmly put his glasses back on. "Tell you what Vegeta, if you ever decide that you want to stay here long term we'll turn one of the larger rooms into a Gravity Chamber with an open floor plan."

Bulma blushed again. "Papa, don't you start too. I already went through this once with Mom."

"Ha ha, sorry dear. It is something to think about though." He mentioned, making direct eye contact with Vegeta for a second before walking towards the house, mumbling calculations about what would be needed for repairs.

Bulma shook her head before turning to Vegeta, once again noting him checking out her swimsuit. "Do you like it?"

"If I had known that you would be running in it I would have made more specific suggestions."

She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, Vegeta, if you had any idea what it was like to run with breasts my size you'd realize that this suit was obviously not designed for sprinting. That aside, what do you think? Does it look nice?"

Vegeta looked her outfit up and down, his eyes speaking more than words ever could. With a smile, she turned and walked back to the house. "Anyway, I'm going out so I'll see you later this evening."

He was behind her before she finished her sentence. "You're 'going out'? In this?"

"It's a nice day so I decided that I'd go to the beach. You know, to swim and soak up some sun."

"You can do both of those things here in private."

She had expected this conversation but she wasn't going to back down. "It's a different experience, Vegeta. You should know by now that we humans like to do things differently just for the heck of it, because it's fun."

"So you own a private pool built for the sole purpose of swimming but you're going to go off somewhere to swim in public because 'it's a different experience'? Your customs never cease to confuse me, Woman."

Giving him her most brilliant smile, she looked back at him. "Bizarre bunch, aren't we?" she asked, purposely ignoring his growl at her for using his past description of her race as a joke as she walked into the kitchen.

"Oh there you are, Bulma. I've finished making your dinner for you trip."

Bulma looked into the large basket with a frown. "Um, thanks Mom but isn't this a bit too much for me?"

"Well after I heard what happened, I thought that maybe Vegeta would want to go with you, since he might as well take a break while the repairs are done."

"Mom, please stop it. You know Vegeta doesn't like crowds."

Her Mom just shrugged and put her hand up to cradle her cheek. "Maybe but if it were me, I'd want to take my big, strong boyfriend to stop the swarms of men from bothering me."

"Mom, I really don't think…"

"I'll go." Vegeta interrupted. At Bulma's shocked look, he added. "I may as well see what is so different about this 'beach' you're so fond of."

"It's settled then. I'll pack the basket into the capsule with your beach stuff. Oh and a watermelon! I know how much you love having fresh watermelon on the beach, Bulma. Vegeta, why don't you look in the linen closet for a pair of swim trunks?" Vegeta grunted and walked off.

Bulma couldn't believe what had just happened. She had dealt with manipulative businessmen and sly pitchmen all hell bent on getting their way, covering up their true intentions with sugar coated words but never did she imagine that the most terrifying and cunning of them all would be her sweet ditsy mother. _'Forget the Androids. Surely she is the most dangerous threat on this planet.'_

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_Hope you liked it. Please feel free to review, I love hearing from you._  
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	12. Exposure

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. The end of last semester hit me hard and it took longer than I'd like to admit to get back into the habit of writing. The was supposed to be a bit longer but I decided to go ahead and put this part up since it can stand alone. I think that's better than waiting until I find enough time to write some more for it. Anyway I hope you enjoy it.

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Bulma parked her car in the parking lot overlooking the beach. As she got out of her car she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sea breeze as it ruffled her unbound hair. _'Ah, nothing but sun, sand, and sea no matter where you look: Such a gorgeous landscape for a relaxing day, it's like a dream,'_ she thought with a smile.

"What the hell is going on here?" Vegeta's irritated voice cut into her peaceful thoughts.

'_Or a nightmare,'_ she thought bitterly as she turned to see him taking in the beach with a look of disgust. "I already told you this, Vegeta. This is the beach."

"I didn't realize this 'beach' of yours was part of the red light district," he commented with a sneer.

Bulma couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Wow, they have red-light districts in space too? What are you talking about anyway?"

"I thought you were trying to excuse you vulgar sense of wardrobe by saying that everyone dressed like street walkers in public on this planet but this… this is worse than I could have possibly imagined."

"I never said that everyone dressed like street walkers!" Bulma said with an angry blush as she looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear Vegeta's rude comment. Luckily, since the parking lot was currently empty and a 30-foot walk down to the beach, there wasn't.

However she did see what he was referring to. Since it was later in the day, most of the families with younger children had gone home so it was mostly adults around. That being the case, many of the beach goers didn't feel the need to cover up as much skin and some of the women she could see were wearing tiny string or thong bikinis_. 'I wonder how much he'd freak if I took him to a nude beach,'_ she mentally chuckled at his possible reactions_. 'He'd probably think it was an orgy.' _She couldn't hold back her laughter at that thought but quickly quieted when Vegeta turned his glare to her.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You. For someone that has seen the horrors of the universe you're awfully prude."

Vegeta gapped at her before catching himself. "I am not a prude."

Bulma grabbed a hair tie and began putting her hair into a ponytail. "Yes yes, you can prove your expertise in sexual affairs later, Vegeta," she said with a wink that caused Vegeta to blush a bit.

"Woman, don't talk about such things in public."

"For crying out loud, there's no one around. Surely your 'superior senses' can tell that no one can see or hear us all the way up here." She would know since she had previously freaked out about Vegeta's earlier comment. "The fact that you have experience means that you've been with women before and given your background at least a few times, if not all of your experiences, have been with the 'street walkers' you're so against so I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it. So are you prude or do you just not want to admit that you like dirty little things like this," she straightened out her wrap with an extra shimmy of her hips smirking when Vegeta's eyes dropped down to take in the action. She turned back to the car to pull out the capsule case with their beach things when Vegeta moved up behind her to whisper in her ear.

"The 'big deal' is that only women lacking decency would parade themselves around in public with all of their skin on show as they are desperate for attention from as many males as possible. Those women are good for a single night before being discarded without a second thought. And while having one night with a woman with that mindset is okay, having a 'relationship' with them is another one altogether."

"Well, it's true that some of the women there are looking for some men for a good night, but some are looking to start an actual relationship. Not to mention that some women aren't looking for men at all but just want to dress up and enjoy themselves."

Bulma felt Vegeta smirk against her ear before slowly moving down her jaw line towards her neck. "And your men, as pathetic as they are, willingly make relationships with these vulgar women? Surely you're not suggesting that their interest comes from wanting to get to know their personality."

"Ah well, physical interest is a very important factor in a relationship, you know."

"Hmm, yes but does that mean that I want a woman that shows off her physical traits to as many men as possible or just to me?" He questioned as his lips reached the fabric covering her neck. "At least you know what needs to be covered."

Bulma swallowed hard as Vegeta's roaming mouth caused her to tilt her head away from him, exposing more of her neck. "That reminds me, why did you want me to cover up my neck? Is it an endogenous zone for Sayians?"

"No. It's an endogenous zone… for you," he paused and Bulma realized too late that he had undone the knot holding her halter in place causing the fabric to fall away exposing her neck. As she grabbed her chest to prevent the fabric from falling further, Vegeta ran his tongue and teeth along the length, sucking harshly. The quick action to her sensitive neck made her moan and she felt his smirk broaden before pulling away. "It's not wise for prey to expose their weakness before its predator, Woman. It makes it that much harder to prevent attack."

"Wh…," Bulma pulled out of her sudden daze and glared at him. "You little hypocrite! I can't talk about your 'experience' in public but you can attack my neck and pull my clothes off?"

"There's no one around, Woman." Before she could comment about how that wasn't the point he continued. "It'll be getting dark in a few hours and I'm sure you've got a full list of pointless things to do. Cover up that mark and hurry."

'_Mark?'_ Bulma turned to check out her reflection in the side mirror of her car only to gasp at the obvious hickey on her neck. "Vegeta, you bastard," she yelled only to receive a cocky grin and a 'hurry up' motion. Keeping her glare on him, she quickly tied her halter back into place and grabbed the capsule case. _'It hasn't even been five minutes and already I'm dreading this trip.'_

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_A/N: Thanks for reading. Please feel free to review, I would love to hear what you think._  
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	13. Show me why

A/N: Ugh, I'm sorry it's been so long getting this chapter out. I've been really busy with classes and then I just had a horrible writers block with this chapter. I also haven't gone through and thoroughly edited it so I'm hoping it's not too bad. Anyway, please enjoy.

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Once Bulma had found a suitable spot, away from the remaining crowds, she popped her capsule and starting setting things up. It was a beautiful day, after all, and not even Vegeta's constant sneer and scrutiny of his surroundings was going to change that.

'_I don't care how much he complains,'_ Bulma decided as she shook out and lowered a blanket to sit on, _'if he doesn't like it he can always leave.' _

With that in mind she reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. After all, one couldn't have naturally gorgeous skin without taking care of it. Squirting a large glob of the coconut scented lotion into her hand, she started applying to herself. She had just started on her legs when she heard a familiar growl behind her.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Bulma peeked back at Vegeta but continued to rub the lotion on her legs. "I'm putting on sunscreen. If I don't I'll have a massive burn and won't be able to move without being in a great deal of pain." She turned back to work on her other leg, despite the fact that as long as Vegeta was around would stay under the wrap. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed something jump and looked over in time to see a man scamper off. Realizing the obvious reason, she sighed. "Vegeta…"

"I thought your hair-brained Mother was just trying to trick me into coming to this pointless place but we've only been her 5 minutes and already these fools are staring at you. Not that your show is discouraging them."

"Vegeta, I'm an attractive woman. Men are going to stare at me. Get over it. As long as they keep their distance there's no problem but I suppose, if I had come alone, a few would have tried to talk to me. But even if someone did come over, I'm perfectly capable of telling them I'm not interested. Have more faith in my taste, will ya?"

Scoffing, Vegeta turned to survey the beach some more.

Frowning at his distracted mind making the worse of things, she decided to tease him a little. "Almost done, but…"

"But what?" Vegeta asked, still standing alert and at ready for an attack that will never come.

"Well, it's just, I need to have lotion applied to my back as well but I can't reach it. Would you please do it for me?"

"What?" Vegeta looked over at her with what she could swear was a blush, "Don't be ridiculous. I'll do no such thing."

With a false sigh, she pouted. "I thought you'd say that. Oh well," she looked over the sands at the people enjoying their day. "Now, who would be willing to help me?"

"Don't even think about it, Woman."

"Look, Vegeta, my back needs to be covered and if you won't do it, I have to find someone else who'll…" she didn't even get to finish her sentence before Vegeta grabbed the bottle from her and hastily smeared some of the lotion onto her back. "Hey, make sure it's even and would it hurt you to be a little gentler?"

Vegeta just glared at her. "I'm not your slave so you should be happy that I did it for you at all."

Bulma inwardly smirked at his embarrassed rage and smile. "Yes yes, thank you so much Vegeta. Tell you what: I'll rub some onto your back now."

"Woman, I've been on planets at least 30 degrees hotter than this planet's record high. Trust me when I say that I'm not worried about my skin getting burned."

Clicking her tongue against her teeth, she shrugged. "You know most guys wouldn't pass up a chance for a free massage from a beautiful woman like me." Then with a wink she added, "Why don't you just lay down and I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

Vegeta grumbled a bit but finally consented. Bulma was glad she got him to lie down but his body was still tense and his eyes seemed to be focused on scanning the beach for improbable dangers. Nonetheless, she rubbed some lotion on her hands and began to give him proper massage, smiling when his body subtly started to relax under her fingers.

"Why couldn't you have done this at your home?"

"Aw, do you want me to massage you more often, Vegeta?" she answered as innocently as possible giggling when he shot a 'you know what I mean' glare at her. "Seriously Vegeta, I would have hoped that you would have gotten used to why we do 'seemingly pointless' rituals here. It's about getting a change of scenery. It's nice to get away from the house once in awhile." She thought about how to better explain her point as she continued to rub the lotion into Vegeta's back. "Surely you've noticed that doing the same training regime everyday causes your progress to get a bit stale, haven't you? Well it's the same for most people. Every now and then we feel the need to break out of our routine lives and do something different, get together with people, go out and see the world. That's why we have holidays and vacations, you know? Because going somewhere else relaxes us or gives us inspiration to help us progress further than if we had stayed back and did the same exact thing every time."

Feeling that she'd made herself as clear as possible, Bulma continued to rub Vegeta's back despite the fact that all the traces of lotion were gone from her extensive massage. _'We'll, he's my boyfriend so I can enjoy his back as much as I want.'_

She was enjoying it so much that she nearly missed Vegeta's quiet question. "Is it that obvious?"

"Is what obvious?" She asked, clearly confused.

Vegeta turned his head just enough that he could see him from the corner of his eye. "That I haven't been making any progress with my training regime."

Bulma's hands froze in their place. "No, I didn't mean to suggest that at all. I mean, I know you're not a Super Saiyan yet but I wouldn't be able to tell how far you are from reaching it."

After a few more moments of eye contact Vegeta turned his eyes back to the beach. Sighing, Bulma decided to move forward with her beach plans hoping that their silliness, at least from Vegeta's point of view, would break him away from his troubled thoughts.

Picking up a towel, Bulma walked and laid it out on the sand in front of Vegeta. Without looking at him, she then went over to her the picnic basket her Mother had fixed and pulled out a watermelon and set it down. Once again ignoring Vegeta's increasingly focused stare she dug through her beach things and walked back to the towel armed with an old baseball bat. Finally she looked down at Vegeta, hoping that she'd be able to stop herself from laughing at his reaction to what she was doing. It was a hard feat, as his expression was a mix of disgust, disbelief, and confusion, but she managed.

"Woman… not that you have a habit of doing normal things but this… this is up there with you getting drunk and bringing a the tree in the living room."

"I told you, I wasn't drunk!" Bulma snapped. After a moment's pause, she added, "And before you ask, I'm not drunk now either."

"You may not be, or have been drunk then, but I imagine that whoever came up with… whatever it is you're doing was."

"Um, well," Bulma stuttered, before pointing the bat at Vegeta and striking a pose, "that's not the point. In any case, there's a very good reason why this was brought about. Since it's illegal to bring a knife big enough to cut open a watermelon, a game was made where a group of people take turns hitting it with a bat. That way, people can have fun competing while still being law abiding citizens."

Vegeta moved his eyes from the bat to the watermelon before looking back to her with a raised eyebrow.

"So, um, get up and give it a swing," she smiled while holding out the bat.

"No."

"Aw, c'mon Vegeta. Why not?" She would have teased him for being a party pooper had the smirk that slowly crossed his not stunned her into silence.

"Because, if I go first, you won't get a turn."

Frowning, Bulma realized exactly why Vegeta was smirking and while she had wanted to get his mind off his apparently bad progress she didn't want it to be because she was doing something embarrassing. She'd learnt her lesson with that in the past during her fight against 'Snow-ku'. "That's okay. We'll just get to eat faster."

Vegeta cocked his head to the side and Bulma flushed wondering how someone could look so innocent and dangerous at the same time. _'Damn, is he trying to extra hard to seduce me or is he always just this naturally charming when he's relaxed?'_

"Faster? If you just wanted to eat faster, you could have just eaten it back at home." When Bulma glared at him his smirk widened to a cruel smile. "So show me, show me how the appeal of this is greater than that convenience."

Bulma couldn't stand looking at him any longer; literally his every action and manner of speaking was making her weak in the knees, so she looked down at the watermelon instead. Now, she was a logical woman, a highly acclaimed genius after all, but she was also headstrong and hated to be looked down upon. So while she knew with 100% accuracy that there was no way that she'd be strong enough to split it she also hated the idea that Vegeta would consider her weak for not even trying. It was lose/lose but in the end her decision was easy to make.

Bracing her feet as best she could in the sand, Bulma lifted the bat over her head, closed her eyes, and bought it down with all her might. The muted thump seemed to echo in her ears drowning out even the ocean waves. She refused to open her eyes and see Vegeta's mocking smirk but braced herself for the inevitable embarrassment.

"Impressive, Woman. You did better than I thought you would."

'What's this? No mocking? No Sarcasm?' Bulma finally peeked through one eye followed quickly by the other one as she stared in shock. While she in no way split the melon, there was a clear crack in the hide. "No way… NO WAY!" Jumping up and down, she danced with joy.

"Woman, would you calm down?" Vegeta all but snarled. "You're going to pop out of that flimsy thing if you keep bounding around like a child."

Bulma just stuck her tongue out at him. "Tough. I'm proud of myself so you'll just have to deal with it," she replied, her grin not fading even as Vegeta growled at her. "Now then," she aimed the bat again, "I wonder if I'd be able to expose the flesh if I hit it again."

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Vegeta's mouth twitch, as if he was forcing himself to frown in order to hide his smile. "I knew you were secretly vicious but I never realized how much of a bloodlust you have. In any case, isn't it my turn?"

Inwardly laughing at Vegeta suddenly attempts to take the turn he'd earlier denied him, Bulma gave a mock pout. "But if you go I won't get another turn."

"Every male on this beach already saw the results of your 'turn' and I'm sure you don't want to see the results of them seeing it again."

"Aw," she reached down and poked his nose before he could react, "you're so cute when you're jealous."

The blush on Vegeta's face coupled with the appalled look was more than worth any tongue lashing she'd get. However, when his face changed from embarrassment to anger, she wondered if she had actually gone too far but a tap on her shoulder made her realize that Vegeta was not glaring at her.

Turning around, Bulma almost laughed as she saw the epitome of the beach jerk stereotype: Bleached blond hair, deep tanned, and unnatural bodybuilder body. Now, she might have a preference towards well-built men but having been around them most of her life she knew the obvious difference between bodies built through training and one that had the aide of chemicals like steroids. Needlessly to say, the man behind her was of the latter and she was not impressed. He flashed an unnaturally white grin and she braced herself for the 'oh-so' predictable words.

"Hey babe," he started not realizing how the term hurt his already non-existent chances, "why is such a hottie like you hanging around with such a lazy, weak loser?"

Once again, Bulma could barely hold back the chuckle. _'If only you knew, bud,'_ she politely smiled. "He's hardly weak and he's only pretending to be lazy because I made him come here for a break from work. I assure he's quite capable," Bulma said, turning back to see how Vegeta was reacting and surprised to see that he seemed to be ignoring the guy more than anything.

"I'd love to show you how much more capable I am in comparison. A real man wouldn't make you do all the heavy work. It pains me to see such a lovely chick overexerting herself. Why don't you let me split that open for you?"

Bulma was expecting Vegeta to fly off the handle any moment but he still looked off past both of them, as if the landscape held more interest than the man mocking him. _'Amazing, I really never imagined that Vegeta would be keeping his cool this much.'_

She was so out of it that she hadn't noticed the beach bum getting closer until placed his arm around her shoulder. "Don't dwell on it too much, babe. The choice should be obvious."

Bulma, having been watching Vegeta, saw the moment change from boredom to blind fury. She shook her head but he didn't pay attention and she could tell that he was moments away from getting up. _'Time to take this into my own hands before I have to explain to the police why there's been a murder.' _Shaking the man's arm off her shoulder, she spun around and placed her hands on her hips. Years of hanging around with her friends had not only made her an expert of judging naturally toned bodies from fake ones but also an expert in knocking men down a few pegs when they were being idiots.

"Now listen here, Bub. Just who do you think you are putting your arm on me?"

The man's cocky smile faltered for a second before he forced it back into place. "Hey now, I just wanted you to see how much fun you'd have with a man that let you have some fun instead of doing all the work."

"You mean you want me to sit back and look pretty while you pose and take tips from old beach movies." Bulma poked him the chest with a finger before continuing, "Sorry to break it to you but if you had the attention span to finish any of those movies you'd noticed that the overworked, pec-twitching jerk that goes around kicking sand in the faces of decent people never actually gets the girl in the end, only the floozies that are sure to be disappointed to learn that the negative effects of steroid use."

With another sharp poke of her finger, the man took a step back, looking around with a blush as he noticed how many people were watching him get scolded by a petite woman. "Whoa, hang on, there's no reason to get mad." Little did he know that she wasn't finished yet.

"And for your information, he wasn't making me do all the work. He's clearly much stronger than I am and let me go first and was just telling me he'd take over before you rudely decided to crash our fun with all your boasting and baseless accusations. And the misogynistic names, please does that ever actually work for you. Chick? Hottie? Babe? Seriously, do you even know who I am? Well, do you?"

Bulma, even in her wrath, could see that the man had suddenly recognized who in fact she was about to try to backpedal his way out of his poor attempt of seduction, but she wasn't about to allow that.

"I'll tell you who I am! I'm Bulma Briefs and if I want to have a nice, peaceful trip to the beach then despite having a pool at home, I will. And if I want to have fun trying to break open a watermelon with a bat even though I already know that I won't actually be capable of doing it then I will. And I don't need some jerk like you telling me whether or not I'm enjoying myself. Do I make myself clear?"

To accentuate her words she smacked palm directly into the center of his chest. The blow was mainly for drama but, to the surprise of both Bulma and the man she was hitting, he suddenly flew back several feet, flailing his arms in a vain attempt to remain standing before falling on his butt. A roar of laughter broke out around them as the watching beachgoers took in the scene. To the average person unaware that there were super powered men living amongst them it just appeared as if she had been strong enough to knock him off balance.

For Bulma, who could still see the hair blown by the strong gust a 'wind' from behind her falling back into place frown and looked back at the true culprit behind her. Vegeta just cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrow as if he honestly didn't know why she was looking at him. _'Seriously? You're going to play innocent?'_By now it was obvious that Vegeta had realized that she had a weak spot for his 'innocent' face as was taking advantage. She couldn't stop the smile that broke through nor the laughter that made her clutch her stomach to prevent herself from falling. Thinking she was also laughing at him, the embarrassed man ran off and the onlookers applauded Bulma for the show before going back to their own business.

Bulma finally stopped laughing enough to look back at Vegeta who had long given up his innocent act to return to his boredom. "So," she held the bat out to him, "are you going to take a turn so we can finally eat?"  
Vegeta looked up at her and then to the bat before reaching out to the melon. Hooking his middle finger behind his thumb, he flicked the cracked hide and instantly broke the fruit in half. Bulma's frown was once again met by a smirk but she just sighed and realized that was more than she actually expected him to do. Breaking the melon into pieces, they finally got to eat their snack.

That point on was enjoyed in relative silence, with Bulma playing around in the sand some and Vegeta dozing. When the sky started to darken, she packed up and decided to take a stroll down the stretch of beach, surprised to see Vegeta join her. It was only a few minutes since she didn't want to be out after dark but forever she enjoyed the sound and feel of the gently crashing waves around her feet and the peaceful landscape devoid of all but a few people that stayed to watch the sunset. Once again, Vegeta stayed silent and while she was more than capable of breaking the silence with some inane chatter, she realized that he actually seemed to be thinking about something so even though it was driving her crazy she let him be.

They had walked about a mile before Vegeta finally spoke. "Just how far do you want to go?"

Bulma looked at him in surprise before looking over to the sun which had nearly set on the horizon. "Oh wow, guess I just got caught up in it all." Turning to look at the view, she smiled at Vegeta. "I know you've seen more worlds than I can imagine Vegeta but, for me, this is view alone is worth coming here." She turned back to the water and stretched, "Ah there's not like doing something different to break the staleness of my normal routine, even if I have to defend myself from the occasional beach jerk," Bulma added with a wink at Vegeta. She could have sworn that his mouth twitched again but it was gone before she could be sure. "In any case, we should get going. It's going to be dark before we get back."

As she walked past him, she could have sworn he mumbled something along the line of 'something different to break a stale routine' and once again she was worried that something really was bothering him. Only knowing that forcing him to talk about it would only frustrate him, and possibly make him angry enough to walk back in the dark, she just continued to walk on.

Thinking back on her day, she wondered if Vegeta thought of the trip to the beach as being any less pointless than when they'd left. She had wanted to have fun and prove him wrong but all this quiet and Vegeta's far off gaze made her feel uncomfortable.

Bringing her arms to try to ward the uneasy feeling away, she was suddenly overwhelmed with a burst of heat similar to their walk back during New Year's and realized that even with his distraction he was still aware of his surroundings enough to warm her with his ki.

Pushing all the negative feelings away, Bulma decided to do something to make the night perfect. Stopping him with a touch on his arm, she reached up and kissed him on the lips. After a moment of hesitation, Vegeta finally pulled her closer and returned the kiss. It was a scenic moment, silhouetted by the distant sunset, golden sky, and rhythmic waves, and it was all theirs.

And even knowing that something bad was building up that would have to be confronted head on, for the time being it alright to bask in the present in a world where they could simply enjoy each other's company.

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A/N: I think it's obvious what's on Vegeta's mind, given that we've all seen the series before, but I hope it'll still be worth reading. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, sorry for the extreme lateness, please read and review as I love to hear what you guys think.


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